Reema Lokesh – Mumbai
With a focus to expand its customer base and venture into new segments of growth, the recent acquisition of Nature Trails Resorts by Thomas Cook’s subsidiary Sterling Holiday Resorts, is part of the plan to achieve this goal. Sterling Holiday Resorts is clearly aiming to increase its product portfolio and venture into the domestic adventure tourism space. From a pure time share concept to the now work with a dual strategy of both time share and general vacationing, the company aims to offer its existing clientele newer products to explore. In an exclusive with Express TravelWorld, Ramesh Ramanathan, MD, Sterling Holiday Resorts stated that the domestic tourism market in India is untapped and has tremendous potential. “People are travelling and spending more, and short holidays and breaks are gaining popularity. Since I took over around four years ago, I felt that it is important to bring in variety in terms of holiday products. We were restricted to be a certain customer segment and it is important to connect to the young and a larger segment who are taking these short holidays. We hope to catch our customers early and with this new takeover we are confident to reach out to a new segment of travellers.”
In the days ahead, the company will work with the original leadership at Nature Trails and its founding member Chinmay Divekar, will continue to contribute to its growth as COO. Ramanathan, added, “We aim to leverage from each other’s strengths. This will help us reach our goal of connecting with a new segment of travellers and also strengthen our foothold in the adventure tourism space.” Speaking about the further plans, Ramanathan added, “Sterling will also look at expanding its operations probably around 2017, however as of now the focus is India.” The company is soon to strengthen its presence in Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh.