By IANS,
New Delhi : Indian travellers are looking for low cost air travel options and cheap hotel rooms as the domestic tourism industry starts to pick up in the wake of the ongoing economic recovery.
This trend will pick up pace in the coming years, speakers at a seminar “The Challenge of Change” in tourism at the ongoing SATTE-ITB 2010 travel fair said here Friday.
The tourism, aviation and travel segments – the three components that make up the industry – are learning to listen to customers, said Aditya Ghosh, president, Indigo Airlines.
“We are now listening to customers. The last three years have shown that we are no different from the world and customers’ expectations and profiles have changed,” he said.
Over the last 18 months, travel and tourism trade have been receiving tremendous support from business travellers – much more than the leisure segment – and they are looking for variety in their itineraries and transport.
According to statistics furnished by Confederation of Indian Industry at SATTE, business travel bookings are expected to show a gentle upswing in 2010.
Business travellers with tighter purses are looking for bargains and budget hotels, the industry group said. It is a time of recovery, after the industry logged a 15 percent drop last year.
“The focus of Air India is on low-cost carriers as we had been badly affected by changes in the money market in 2007 which had pushed up our cost of operations and an aging fleet,” Rohita Jaidka, executive director (Commercial) of Air India, said.
“We are now pulling out old aircraft and refurbishing our fleet by inducting new Boeing aircrafts so that flying becomes an economical experience for travellers and profitable for airlines.”
Responding to this and making his point about the changing profile of travellers, Ghosh said: “There were some customers you thought were yours, but suddenly they felt that they needed to go to Indigo, Jet Airways or Kingfisher.
“As things move up – 50 percent of them have moved up – we need to build more capacities and choice for customers. We do not give enough choices to our customers. The customer is evolving faster than you thought.”
As the customers tighten purses, hotels are restructuring too. Matthew Cooper, general manager of the Marriott Courtyard-Gurgaon — a “moderate tier four-star property” — said: “Travellers look for right beds, right size rooms, quality beverage and food in a hotel now.”
“We are targeting the long-stay clients so that business stays over the weekend. It also helps the hotel set up a personal relationship with the guests. The meltdown has cut the hotel trade down to size,” Cooper told IANS.
The chain is building three Courtyard hotels to “accommodate the needs of moderate tier business travellers”, he added.
Several hotel chains like The Park, the Sarovar Group and Premier Inn India have entered the mid-market moderately priced hotel segment in the last two years.
One of the first movers in the mid-market segment, the Lemon Tree Hotels, currently has 10 hotels – and 17 more in the pipeline – aggregating over 2,500 rooms.