By IANS,
New Delhi : Emirates Holidays, the holiday packages arm of Emirates Airlines, Thursday reported a bullish outlook on its business in India, saying it expected double digit growth in the current fiscal.
“We have been witnessing strong growth in India ever since we started operations here in 2006. This fiscal, we expect a double digit growth as more and more Indians want to experience new destination with quality travel assistance,” Nadeem Ulde, Emirates Holidays’ business development manager for India, told IANS.
“We are a new player in the market and we will gain market share, especially in the leisure segment as it is bound to grow in the coming years.”
Ulde was speaking at the launch of the company’s expanded travel brochure with eight new destinations that can be reached from India.
These destinations are cities in Argentina, Denmark, Ireland, Zambia, Zimbabwe, the United States (Dallas and Seattle) and Canada (Vancouver).
“We cater to the high-end segment of customers who have already been to many popular international destinations and are now looking for offbeat places like South America or Africa,” he said.
“We expect a good response to destinations such as Argentina, Zambia or Zimbabwe as a lot of Indians would like to visit these places which were earlier thought to be a tough travel ask for them.”
Even middle-east destinations such as Jordan will gain popularity, says the company, which also brings clients to holiday destinations in India.
“India is also popular with customers from other countries, especially the middle east, Europe and the United States. Our office there are also trying to aggressively promote India.”
The company is also expected to add Barcelona into its schedule after the parent airline starts its operation to the Spanish city from Dubai sometime in the coming months.
It is also ready to cater to specific needs of Indian travellers, like providing Gujarati or Jain food which are vegetarian and do not use specific herbs and onions.
“We understand needs of Indian customers and in the past we have made arrangements for Indian foods in foreign countries if we receive such request.”
Currently, the parent airline, through which the company operates its packages, runs 185 weekly flights from 10 Indian destinations to its hub in Dubai, from where transit flights transport customers to their holiday destinations.