Getting ready for the festival travel season
Sunrise Representations offers a holistic spectrum of sales and marketing solutions customised for all travel industry interfaces. Its mission is to be the preferred representation company for DMCs, hotels and other travelrelated products. We at TTJ spoke to Vandana Mathur, Director, Marketing and PR, Sunrise Representations, to learn more about their business and plans in the current scenario.
Sunrise Representations manages DMC Reps’ operations in India. DMC Reps specialises in promoting a unique selection of Destination Management Companies to outbound global markets. In India, through Sunrise Representations, they have a sound understanding of the India market, which has sensitised them to the specific requirements of their clients.
“We assist DMC Reps’ partners to grow business from the India market. There are almost close to 25 DMCs in countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Croatia, Slovenia, Spain, Malta, Georgia, and South America that we are promoting to potential tour operators and travel agencies pan India,” shares Vandana.
They also assist REPS Unlimited, a division for hotel representation that offers a global platform to promote locally owned and managed hotels, resorts, and cruises to the biggest and most potential outbound markets from Europe, Asia, Oceania, and North America. REPS Unlimited has recently partnered with The KATA Group Collection, which owns and operates luxurious beach-front resorts in the most desired locations within Thailand: Phuket, Krabi, and Khao Lak.
After the covid slowdown, Sunrise has fared well in the first two quarters of 2022. “Focus Asia, Best of Bahrain, 8 in Spain, our represented DMCs have had good response due to various reasons like better airline connectivity, value for money hotels and popularity of the destinations,” says Vandana.
There are still a lot of challenges they face. Inquiries are high, but the conversion is low. High airfare on long-haul destinations and visa appointment issues still remain. They were able to multitask with the workers during COVID, effectively utilising their services.
Throwing light on their plans for the next two quarters of this year, Vandana informs, “We will participate in OTM in Mumbai and TTF in Ahmedabad in September to get a good share of the holiday and festival season. We hope to confirm inquiries, especially from Kolkata, Gujarat, and Maharashtra, as these are strong markets where people do travel during festivals.”
According to Vandana, for outbound travel, a greater focus is on destinations with lesser formalities and ease of visa. Their focus is also on short-haul destinations such as Thailand, where they have partnered with KATA Group Hotels, and new trending destinations such as Vietnam.