All eyes on domestic tourism

With both inbound and outbound business coming to a halt along with international flight operations, there has been a gradual shift in focus for tour operators to domestic business. While some were already doing it pre-COVID in a small way, there are many who are venturing into the segment now.

Inbound

Jatinder Taneja, MD, Travel Spirit International

We always had an outbound and domestic travel department in the organisation, and we were already selling these packages to our clients. However, our focus was primarily inbound business, which was the backbone of our operations before the pandemic. We have now begun focusing on domestic business as well.

Madan Kak, COO – Tours, Minar Travels India

We already had a domestic tourism division at Minar, which is called Wishcover Journeys by Minar. While inbound traffic, of course, is not there, domestic tourism has started picking up. The demand is there, but it is mostly for nearby destinations that people prefer to drive to. Travellers are not taking packages as of now, but they want to experience luxury hotels in and around their cities.

Deepak Bhatnagar, MD, Aamantaran Travel

We have created a new domestic team in our office under the Caper brand, with existing resources. We have a website – india.capertravelindia.com, where we have put all the domestic packages. There are a reasonable number of queries as of now, since that also depends on investment on promotions. We will not go overboard with it, but if it generates something, we will continue it.

Vinayak Koul, Director, Snowlion Expeditions

For us, domestic business is a complete overhaul since we have always been doing inbound. However, it’s not easy because most of the inbound operators like us have been B2B and the business model is different. While things have started to improve, it is nothing close to normal. It is difficult to first

Outbound

Guldeep Singh Sahni, MD, Weldon Tours & Travels

We were doing domestic earlier also, but only around 5-7%. At the same time, we are updating ourselves in outbound through webinars and trainings, since that is our forte. However, we know that for the next year and a half, people will travel domestic some more. We have trained ourselves for domestic.

Riaz Munshi, MD, N. Chirag Travels

We used to do very little domestic business earlier, and we are doing it now as well. However, it’s not a very lucrative market, as hotels try to reach the client directly and undercut the agent. They are also marketing themselves. I feel protecting the agent guarantees future business for hotels only, but I don’t understand why they still undercut. It is the time to make money and nobody would say no at this time. It’s not the customer spoiling the market, it’s our trade which is unorganised and responsible for this. But, the market is such that you cannot survive on domestic alone.

SK Dewan, MD, Dewan Travels

Domestic is not new to Dewan Travels, however, it is only 25-30% of what it used to be earlier. It will take time to develop because confidence in travel will happen when people start travelling, which will increase by word of mouth. Currently, people are avoiding travelling by train and air, especially for tourism purposes. We are seeing bookings from Mumbai to Matheran that can be reached by road. There is a phobia against travelling and it will take time to go. We have started educating our clients, but the result will not be 100%. It might take few months before they start travelling again by air.

Siddharth Khanna, Managing Partner, Travel Engineers

While we were doing domestic business in the past as well, it used to be only 30% of our business pre-COVID. We are creating some new products around it. Our website, traveengineers.com, features driveable destinations from Delhi to Rishikesh, Jim Corbett, Mukteshwar, Agra, Ranthambore, Udaipur, Jodhpur, etc. We are also selling Goa and are primarily focusing on luxury properties, while also selling a few boutique properties. Our forte was outbound, but now that the domestic product is doing well, we are not going to discontinue it.

Inputs by Nisha Verma