Thomas Cook (India) has introduced new Maharashtrian Regional tours to tap the Marathi speaking travellers. To promote the same, Thomas Cook partnered with the new Marathi movie Rajwade & Sons; and organised a three city promotional tour to Kolhapur, Pune and Thane. The new Marathi exclusive packages titled Avismarniya and Apratim Tours consists of a mix of domestic and international packages.
Speaking to Express TravelWorld, Shibani Phadkar, senior vice president and head – leisure travel outbound, products, contracting, operations and tour management, Thomas Cook (India) said, “The Maharashtra market is growing by 20- 25 per cent year-on-year. This is one of the reasons we want to explore this market further. We have partnered with the movie Rajwade & Sons as one of the characters in the movie is an aspirant traveller and this will help us to connect with the market. Our new packages will take care of every needs of a Maharashtrian traveller, we have Marathi speaking guides, Maharashtrian cuisine will be arranged during the tours, etc.”
Europe is one of the most favourable destinations for Maharashtrian travellers. Destinations like Scandinavia, China, Australia are popular. Speaking about the trends Phadkar said, “Maharashtrian travellers not only visit attractions and places, but also wants to understand the culture and history of a destination. Some of the European destinations have a lot of history to be explored, hence is amongst the top favourites. Over 20 per cent of the total business for Thomas Cook is from Maharashtra, hence this is a very potential market for us. Also, for this campaign, we are tapping the smaller cities as we have to make our brand accessible to these places. As of now we have started our campaign with three cities, but later on we will add cities like Nagpur, Nashik, Sangli and many other interiors of Maharashtra.”
To further tap this market, Thomas Cook also plans to introduce Marathi language brochures and e-brochures online.