We have moved from multi-country itineraries to life event holidays: Vishal Suri, MD, SOTC Travel

Vishal Suri, MD, SOTC Travel speaks about SOTC’s vision for the coming year, market temperament and more

How do you see the business evolve in the coming year 2019-20?

SOTC is a mainstream travel business. Our focus is to give our customers a quality holiday experience. We wish to spread the message that travel and holidays are an integral part of one’s life and travel does bring people closer. Today the travel business is growing and people are moving away more from the typical multi-country itineraries to that of holidays celebrating milestones. We are focusing on multiple segments and we are here to offer our customers a travel journey filled with memories and experiences. We at SOTC are ready and focused to cater to every market segment. We will continue to being innovation in travel and cater to the needs of the traveller. We are into a phase of a healthy double digit growth. The MICE segment has more than doubled, while I have full faith in the growing business of the domestic market. People are exploring newer destinations in India and moving away from just Goa. The Udaan scheme will definitely connect more towns and cities within the country and give a fillip to travel. To aid that further, the perceived value associated with travel has also increased, which helps our business. The demand for micro trips, longer weekend trips are sharply on the rise and people prefer taking shorter breaks every 3 months. As I said, today there is no broad brush single customer segment for us at SOTC.

Any new investments to meet the growing demand of the traveller?

We are investing heavily into technology. From self service in-store experiences, to customer friendly apps to that of investing in the online space, analytics and inculcating VR in our system to provide our customers with quality experiences, even before they travel with us is something we have invested in. Our travel experiential store in Bengaluru is worth a visit. The customer journey begins with us before they even join our tours.

Any observations for the future?

I am certain that though group travel will increase, there will be more emphasis on experiences rather than just visiting a particular place. We would like to further broaden our portfolio not just with destinations but experiences within the destination and outside of it. Our Darshans – crafted spiritual experiences by SOTC receives encouraging response from travellers. To cater to the growing demand of spiritual tourism in the country, we launched Darshans in association with ePuja, India’s first online portal for religious ceremonies. Further, to cater to the demand of rail holidays, SOTC has introduced Great Rail Journeys. These itineraries have been created in collaboration with “Great Rail Journeys” a UK based operator. Travellers can get to discover the world through truly epic journeys travelling on iconic trains across entire continents such as Europe, Asia and Americas. We at SOTC are extremely upbeat about the future.