TravTalk India Online Magazine
Riyaz U.C., MD, SpiceLand Holidays, says combining Kerala and Sri Lanka in packages and offering digital convenience to trade partners is key for growth.
SpiceLand Holidays is one of the largest DMCs in Kerala and have presence in Sri Lanka as well. In fact, in an innovative strategy, the company is now combining Kerala with Sri Lanka for their customers. Riyaz U. C., Managing Director, SpiceLand Holidays, reveals, “To improve the flow of tourists towards South India, we are basically combining the extreme end of India, which is Kerala with Sri Lanka. With this move, we are targeting our inbound market. We introduced the combination of Sri Lanka with Kerala last year and it has become a big hit in the Arab market. Hence, we thought of putting in more efforts and popularise it in the inbound market as well.”
Riyaz claims that their innovative approach and unique products, packages and style of work is their biggest USP. Talking of Sri Lanka, he says, “We are one of the major local DMCs in Sri Lanka. India is the number one source market for Sri Lanka, followed by China. From India, there is movement to Sri Lanka for both leisure and MICE.” Even Kerala is doing very well in terms of MICE business. “Kerala definitely is a place with huge demand for small and mid-size MICE activity. Of course, there are major medical conferences happening in Kerala as well but the regular business comes from the steady small and medium MICE movements,” he reveals. Riyaz says that travel agents are very important for them and they offer great technological ease for their premium partners. “We have a number of B2B partners as well as a big sales force across the country. Thus, almost all the Tier-I and Tier-II cities are covered fully in our network. We have a fully integrated online system for our premium partners. They have an online option to access our back-office operation with their login. Thus, they don’t have to wait for an itinerary or quotations for a long time or even for a few days. They can build their own itinerary right in front of the customer. Nowadays, everyone wants to do things within 5-10 mins, and it’s easy for our trade partners, instead of sending 10 mails to us and wait for hours to get it done,” he claims.
”We introduced the combination of Sri Lanka with Kerala last year and it has become a big hit in the Arab market”
• Riyaz U.C. Managing Director, SpiceLand Holidays, India Travel Award winner
