KAHINI CHAKRABORTY – Mumbai
With an aim to increase awareness about the brand portfolio, Trafalgar, part of the Travel Corporation has launched its 2013 collection of European itineraries for India. The company has established distribution partnerships with leading outbound tour operators like Cox & Kings, Club 7, Flight Shop, Orbits, Comfort Leisure, Master Holidays and Travel Heights. The Travel Corporation has appointed Darshan Maheshwari as country manager. Trafalgar 2013’s over 100 summer itineraries include VIP priority sightseeing at Europe’s famous landmarks, as well as exclusive insider experiences, one of which is ‘Be My Guest’. Besides the First Class programme, Trafalgar has also launched the 2013 CostSaver range of holidays, which include 34 cost-effective itineraries.
Talking to Express TravelWorld on the market plans of the company, Nicholas Lim, regional director – Asia, Trafalgar said, “With these exclusive tie-ups we are covering almost 80 per cent of the India market. With major number of bookings coming from Mumbai, the other markets like Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune have also picked up. We are looking at attracting the leisure segment and for the same will be adopting a two-pronged marketing strategies. Firstly, we will continue to work closely with the travel trade in India and on the sidelines also work on consumer activity campaigns in order to build more brand awareness among consumers. Keeping a conservative approach we are looking at achieving a 25 per cent business growth next year. We are here to establish ourselves for the long run and are looking at setting up our office in India soon.”
Elaborating on the market trends, Lim added, “Luxury travel has seen an exponential growth and will continue to grow. We have seen 70 per cent of our clients from India opt for our First Class products compared to the CostSaver. As traveller demands are evolving we need to move on and keep introducing new products to entice travellers and offer them a unique experience in every travel itinerary. As per our research, travellers are opting for mono destinations for a travel period of maximum seven days. Even though our source markets have been USA, Australia, Canada, in the Asia Pacific market, we have seen a growth of 25 per cent since we set up our regional office in Singapore in August last year. We look at further growing the market.”
