It is a general practice to enter into a New Year with a list of resolutions ranging from the doable to the daunting. Whether in one’s personal life, the society or the industry, new resolutions give a new direction and dynamism. The tourism industry went through 2012 rather neutrally. It is time now for renewal that can only be brought about by focusing on new areas of growth and development.
The basic concept of holidaying has changed and vanilla packages are being replaced with innovative and off-beat tourism aspirations. New segments have emerged over time and, sensitivity in travel planning and designing along with catering to emotional demands are taking precedence over straight jacket tourism offers. Today it is all about `experiential tourism’. This definitely calls for travel managers who need to spend more time on developing research based customised tourism products to meet the demands of niche tourism, which eventually need to be marketed effectively and high-quality service delivered across the entire value chain. Over the years, business patterns changed, wherein the brick and mortar companies had to deal with the future online business units. Technology brought in a whole lot of opportunities and the social media segment has led to a further revolution and proved to be a game changer. For example, our finds in the religious tourism segment have highlighted the fact that new age faith-based tourism is not only going to be focused on just visiting pilgrimage sites but also on experiences that range from attending faith based conferences to going on a cruise with a select group of believers or going for a camping vacation with those belonging to the same sect/ cult.
Today tourism products range from divorce tourism to space tourism offerings. While the new age traveller is looking for distinctively different experiences, there is a small but growing segment which believes in travelling with a specific aim to enrich themselves – this can range from learning a new culinary style while on a vacation to doing a crash course in tennis or engaging in voluntourism. From Bulgaria, Croatia and Ukraine in eastern Europe to Azerbaijan in western Asia and Uzbekistan in central Asia, there is a lineup of new exotic locales to be discovered by the Indian traveller.
Back home, it is the seven sisters in the North East along with Sikkim and West Bengal which will crown India’s tourism in the near future. With two major industry events happening this month in Guwahati, our January issue is a tribute to the North East region and its people.
Reema Lokesh
Editor
