TravTalk India Online Magazine
McArthurGlen, Europe’s major designer shopping outlet chain present in 26 locations across 10 countries, aims to woo more and more Indian travellers. Mathias Sinner, Manager, Senior International Markets, McArthurGlen Group, was in India recently to do just that and meet key Indian travel trade.
TT Bureau
Shopping is one of the most popular activity by the Indian traveller. Diverse brands, great quality, attractive deals and no duty make shopping abroad an appealing proposition for Indians. That is why McArthurGlen – a chain of designer shopping outlets present across Europe (as well as in the UK and Canada) is keen on the Indian market. Mathias Sinner, Manager, Senior International Markets, McArthurGlen Group, was recently in India visiting key travel partners in New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru. He says, “We wanted to cover every
key part of the country to get a good overview of the market, meet select agents and partners in each of these cities to understand the market better and how we can support them in sending customers to our outlets.”
Sharing some key highlights of the product, Sinner says, “If you look at our brand assortment, we offer everything – from luxury brands like Gucci and Prada that are very popular with Indian shoppers, to sports and premium brands. We have a range of brands that appeal to every traveller type. They are located in attractive destinations that are largely popular with Indian travellers. Italy is one of them where we have five outlets. The most popular one with Indian visitors is the one in Serravalle, which is just 45 minutes from Milan. Even Austria is very important for us when it comes to the Indian market. Our outlet in Parndorf, which is close to Vienna, is highly favoured by the Indian travellers.”
Indians love shopping
He sees huge potential in the Indian market when it comes to shopping. “We know that Indians love to shop while they travel; it is an important activity for them. They also like a good deal and look for discounts while shopping. That is why we believe our brand and our product fit well with this market and there is a lot of attractiveness for the Indian travellers when they come to Europe. We offer anything between 30 per cent and 70 per cent off on the normal retail price – that is standard across all our outlets all year round. But obviously we also have the sale season where you get even more discounts. We also know how important VAT refunds are for Indian travellers. Our biggest outlets, especially those favoured by Indian travellers have in-centre tax refunds. Getting these refunds at the airport is tedious and time consuming. So, we try to offer these services at our outlets to ease that pain,” Sinner shares.
While the destination is the main draw, travellers do like to indulge in shopping as an activity if they are in a place for many days. They want to do something different other than sightseeing and culture.
“That’s when the shopping outlets such as ours fit in well in their itinerary and add to the local economy. So, it benefits the destination as well. We work with many international tourism boards in the Indian market – we have a good working relationship with Austrian National Tourist Office, German National Tourist Board, Italian National Tourist Board ENIT, Tourism Office of Spain – in Mumbai, so essentially every destination we have an outlet in that operates an office in India, we try to partner with them to position our outlets as part of the destination,” he adds.
MICE is also key
He says that while interacting with travel agents and tour operators in India, he is frequently asked about the discounts available at the outlets and how to reach them. “Since our outlets are located a bit outside the city centres, we offer shuttle busses from the main city centres to our outlets,” he says.
