Indian traveller looking beyond Dubai

Siddharth Bhatia (SB):  Welcome to DNA. I would like to get started with the general scenario with the tourism industry now.
Wlodek Czausow: Poland is a new destination for Indians. Last year 13,000 Indians travelled to Poland up from 9500 in 2006. Poland is also growing as a trade economical exchange partner of India. But Poland is not well-known in India. Now that we are a part of the Schengen union and not the Soviet bloc, things are easier. The question is why should Indians go to Poland?  Well, because we have things to show them — Krakow, Danzig, our capital Warsaw.  During WWII Warsaw was erased to almost nothing, now the old part of the city has been completely rebuilt.

Medha Sampat: South Africa compliments many long haul destinations.  The country continues to amaze me every time I go and I go there often. There is a lot that it has to offer to the Indian client, be it adventure, wildlife, luxury or a normal city shopping experience. South Africa also has the ability to pull off world class events at a very short notices be it Miss World or the IPL.

Mark Mendes: We cover Denmark, Sweden and some Scandinavian countries.  We look at tourism as a product that has its own cycle.  It grows as a region and finally matures as a destination.  Look at Australia and New Zealand.  Everyone looked at Australia as a pre-route to New Zealand (NZ).  NZ was a region. Now we have a clear mandate to promote these destinations to Indian travellers and also to tour operators.

Carl Vaz: The global slowdown bordering on the recessionary trend has affected everyone, even Dubai as far as inbound traffic is concerned. The traffic from India to Dubai has reduced by almost 15 to 25 per cent.  But the quality of the high end traffic has been retained. Dubai has always reinvented itself. This is also the best time to buy property in Dubai as the rates have deflated to almost 40 per cent. We are promoting it as an investment opportunity for buying property. My overall assessment as a consultant is that we are not as drastically affected as western Europe or the US. The trend for 2009-2010 is a growth of 15 to 25%. Airlines are pulling out but I think these are just temporary phases where they are cutting costs for a quarter or two. Maybe corporates have cut down on their expenses but long term, there is nothing for us to be nervous about.

Salvatore Ianniello:  There are also a lot of positives in spite of the global recession. We’ve seen a lot of requests for Italy and the challenge is to now convert these requests to bookings. Compared to last year, there may be fewer requests but more bookings. And the answer to the question why Italy is, why not Italy again? The success of Italy depends on the fact is that it is not a first-time destination only.

I just read the book Shantaram, where Gregory David Roberts says that Indians are the Italians of the east and Italians are the Indians of the west. I think Italy as a destination caters to each and every age and taste ? it has beauty, culture, food, lifestyle, history, heritage, tradition and atmosphere. There are 40 million repeat travellers from all over the world each year. In terms of growth I have seen the number of visas issued grow by 30 to 40 per cent.

KS Anand: To understand this unbridled optimism, in 1998 Cox & Kings gambled when the official restriction on Indians travelling abroad was removed. We saw that Indians wanted to travel. Indians have money but no confidence. Language is a barrier, visas were a barrier and they still are to some extent. So we made an investment years ago with the aim to aspire for market leadership in leisure and I think we succeeded. There is a lot happening in the holiday space.

If we breakdown the Indian traveller, I think 70 to 90 per cent travellers start by going to Dubai, Thailand, Singapore. Malaysia has come up very quickly. In long haul destinations, the first, second and third aspiration for an Indian traveller is Europe, Europe and Europe. Then he thinks of the US and Australia, New Zealand and now South Africa. The key is that SA, Australia and America vie for second position for Indian travellers. In 1990s we sold a lot of northern Europe — Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Austria and Italy. Spain can be the next stop. Visas were a problem. Italy had been quite positive in that aspect. Now who can think of a 15 day holiday in Europe without going to Rome?

SB: Let’s say you get a week and you do not want to go to Thailand, Dubai or Singapore.  What’s on offer?
KS Anand: What is the largest expense in your travel? Your ticket. If that has been taken care of, nobody would mind extending their holiday. When people go to Europe they will go there at least for 10 days.

SB: How are you going to pull away people from well-known destinations?
Wlodek Czausow: A good solution is to connect Poland as a destination to other central European destinations — like Vienna-Krakow. And it would be good for tour operators to bunch it with other destinations.

SB: Time and money are a constraint. Switzerland is on my priority list. Then why should I go to Scandinavia?
Mark Mendes: It is all a part of cycle. Australia is on the list of the fourth time traveller. For Sweden and Denmark, we are looking at fifth and sixth time traveller to Europe.
SB: Visas have been mentioned as major constraints for the Indian traveller.
Salvatore Ianniello: The Indian traveller is very young. When I first came to India I met the tour operators and then communicated to Italy that if you don’t change the rules, you won’t get any benefits. We entered into an agreement with India, China and Russia to facilitate the process for visas.

Medha Sampat: Security is an issue after 9/11. With Indians per se decide last minute to go on a holiday.  So this affects the turnaround time for getting visas.

Naveeta Singh: In November 2008, the Euro monitor travel report stated that during the recession middle-east tourist destinations will benefit and the key to this is low cost airlines and budget hotels.

Carl Vaz: Dubai is certainly into this. We are coming up with a new airport with a low-cost terminal.  Then we are also launching a low cost carrier. The Dubai department of tourism has also certified certain projects for budget room hotels.

KS Anand: At Cox & Kings we have a different approach. It is the airlines which decide what is low-cost or not. Luxury and giving value to the customer is the name of the game. Indian clients love deals.  That’s why they wait till the last minute to get the best deal and value. Air tickets can be cheap but a holiday can never be cheap.

Carl Vaz: If everything is so rosy, then where is the problem?  I think it is because of the fence-sitters. Recession has not hit the common man but the corporate executives who borrowed heavily to buy a fancy car or spent on consumer durables or buy a bigger house.

SB: So I can say that there is overall optimism. The Indian traveller is becoming more sophisticated, demanding not only in terms of quantity but also in terms of experience? That’s good news, and thank you for coming.
(Coordinated by Naveeta Singh)