Exploring new horizons

With the Tier-II and III cities as the new talk of the town for business expansion, India Travel Award winners discuss their plans of enhancing their presence in the new market.

Manas Dwivedi

Best Regional Airline — Silk Air (South 2018)

Jagdish Ram Bhojwani, General Manager—India, Silk Air talks about expansion in the airline’s product line, saying, “SilkAir is committed to consistently improving itself to ensure quality service and offerings amid competition and changing landscapes. On the product front, we recently introduced five new meals onboard, featuring favourite local delights of countries we fly to. Our complimentary wireless in-flight entertainment (IFE) system, SilkAir Studio, has also recently been enhanced with an extended library of content. With a selection of more than 300 international movies and TV programmes, there’s now something for everyone.

Best Airport — Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (South 2018)

Briefing about his plans to enhance service quality and facilities, Javed Malik, CCO, Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) says, “As the operator of the Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru, we are constantly innovating to increase annual passenger throughput during peak hours. As part of the interim capacity enhancement measures, BIAL has already increased the number of self-check-in kiosks, check-in counters, security check zones, swing gates, taxi parking, etc. We are currently working on additional gates, self-bag drop counters, auto-tray retrieval systems, e-gates and queue management.

Best Foreign Exchange Aggregator — FXKART.COM (South 2018)

Abdul Hadi Shaikh, CEO, FXKART.com informs that the company constantly innovates to bring new products to the market which can solve the issues of travel consultants with respect to remitting money for their overseas bookings. He explains, “Our strategy is to regularly launch such products and expand our presence in the online space. To get the visibility and credibility that every travel consultants desire, we are foraying into multiple partnerships which can give us access to travel consultants and help us participate in road shows as well as association conferences.

Best Debut Hotel — Holiday Inn Express & Suites Bengaluru, Racecourse (South 2018)

Varun Kamra, Director- Sales and Marketing, Holiday Inn Express & Suites Bengaluru says, “We are evolving along with our guests, bringing about fresh experiences to offer.  On the same lines we are converting the brand from Holiday Inn Express to a full service Holiday Inn Bengaluru and adding up a freebee dining Indian specialty restaurant- SPICE ART. We are also coming up with a premium TURF VIEW- bar on the 17th floor. Overall the hotel will be a full package for BLEISURE – business cum leisure which is the latest trend for all our smart travellers and guests.

Best Boutique Tour Operator — Nexus Travels (West 2017)

Vicky Ray, Director, Nexus Travels plans to design itineraries for a number of new and exciting destinations, mainly out of which covers most of California for the Indian market. “Destinations like Palm Springs, Monterey, Santa Monica, Anaheim and High Sierra are in the offing. We are also working on Destination Vancouver and other emerging locations as well. We are currently not planning any expansion as we want to focus more on expertise in particular destinations so that we can run our B2B operations in Tier-II and III cities efficiently,” he said.

Best Mid Market Corporate Hotel — Ramada Bangalore (South 2018)

Talking about expansion at new destinations, Sachin K S, Director—Sales & South Head Travel Trade, Ramada Bangalore says, “We, at Royal Orchid hotels, have started expanding our properties to Tier-II and III cities. We have already embarked on our journey to add 15 new properties in India with focus on the smaller cities. Our sales team is strong and we want to make sure that we have presence in all the cities. We are looking forward to have 100 properties by 2020.

Best DMC- South East Asia — TravelBullz (South 2018)

Talking about two new destinations, Amit Paul Singh, General Manager, TravelBullz says, “Two major initiatives are slated for this year. We are opening two new destinations, Singapore and India by the end of this year. We have been leading in outbound travel in India for our destinations; it’s about time we get the India inbound and domestic business right. We are also starting our own in-house technology to take care of our growing technological needs.” With a good team taking care of all the Tier-II and III cities, TravelBullz’s reach to smaller agents and town is extensive, informs Singh.

Best Destination Management Company  — STHI Holidays India (West 2017)

Elaborating on his company’s plan to enhance presence in Tier-II and III cities, Gagan Kumar, Director, STHI Holidays India shares, “Day by day, we are increasing the number of passengers from Tier-II and III cities with support of our partners. We are keen to educate our agents in Tier-III cities through our knowledge sessions, roadshows and workshops with support from tourism boards. He further says, “Moving forward, we are looking to expand our business to new destinations like USA, Canada and some island countries.