Bengaluru based travel and photography company, Toehold, that has been conducting photography tours since 2010, has seen significant growth in the niche segment in recent years, not only in terms of customer profile but destinations covered. “We estimate that there are almost 25000 photography enthusiasts who travel within India and abroad with just photography on the mind. The outbound market is growing rapidly,” said Jayanth Sharma, co-founder & CEO, Toehold. Initially the company used to operate 20-25 tours each year and most of the tours were within India except Africa and Sri Lanka. “But now, we have clients across the nation and also countries like US, France, UK and UAE. Clients are travelling to remote corners of the world like Antarctica, Arctic, Patagonia in South America, Far-east of Russia and to the corners of the African continent,” stated Sharma.
While most of the clients are between the ages of 25-50, there are a few elderly photography enthusiasts also. “Mostly are employees of tech companies, doctors, businessmen. We currently get 20 per cent women on such tours and many of them travel solo,” he remarked. Within India, the popular destinations are Ranthambhore, Kabini, Bandhavgarh, Corbett and Tadoba, while Ladakh is in great demand for adventure and nature lovers.
According to Sharma, Toehold’s Antarctica and Arctic trips are seeing a larger interest base while people are starting to travel to central and South America which is an emerging market. “We do a lot in Africa and it is a very popular part of the world for photography tours. There are a lot of destinations within Africa that are emerging like Botswana and Rawanda, apart from the obvious Kenya and Tanzania,” remarked Sharma, adding that Iceland is currently one of the most popular international destinations. “We have exclusive contracts to do photography tours in destinations like Iceland, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Pantanal, Kamchatka, Svalbard and Patagonia,” he stated.
A part of Sharma’s business is camera rental service for the photography tours, which is required by more than 40 per cent of his clients.