DRMumbai: Rakshit Desai, Managing Director, FCM Travel Solutions, Indian Subsidiary of Flight Centre Travel Group, Australia, explains the firm’s expansion plans in India.
You follow a July-June calendar. Have you been able to cross the Rs. 4000-crore revenue target set for FY2017-18?
At FCM Travel Solutions, we have achieved 42 per cent growth during the last fiscal year. Our target was to reach a turnover of Rs. 4000 crore and we have been able to achieve it.
How did your business segments perform in 2017-18?
FCM Travel Solutions is one of the leading travel companies in India and operates an extensive portfolio of businesses across leisure, corporate travel and forex. 55 per cent of our existing business is from corporate travel including SMEs and the remaining 45 per cent from leisure travel and forex.
What is the rationale behind the rebranding exercises and how has it turned out?
In October 2016, we acquired the business interests of Travel Tours Group (TTG), in a cash and stock deal. The main reason to rebrand our travel retail and holiday brand Flight Shop to Travel Tours was that Travel Tours is one of the biggest travel brands operating in South India. The four-decade-old company offers travel services ranging from leisure, corporate travel, MICE, visa, inbound to wholesale and foreign exchange.
With a strong brand equity and heritage, we believe that Travel Tours has and will continue to benefit us, pan India.
This move supports our journey of going from a flight seller to being a holiday specialist. We had conducted an extensive consumer and market research regarding our brand overall. From being a regional powerhouse to a national player of repute, the foundation for the rebranding is firmly in place.
How are you expanding your national footprint? What is the roadmap?
We are in the process of adding corporate offices across key metros, Tier II and III cities across India. We also plan to increase our footprint across 20 more cities in the next two years through the franchise route.
For Flight Centre Travel Group, how important is the India market?
Lately, the love of travel has taken India by storm. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, India represents the 13th largest market worldwide, in terms of the number of travellers. As per the Indian Ministry of Tourism, there were 21.9 million departures in 2016, spending a total of $16.4 billion on travel.
The impressive numbers have grabbed the attention of travel service providers, including us at Flight Centre Travel Group, across the globe, thereby, making the rapidly growing Indian tourism industry a very lucrative market. For Flight Centre Travel Group Australia, India ranks as one of the top five countries for the company’s global growth.
What are the major trends evolving in the Indian market especially outbound?
India, as the fastest growing economy, boasts a consistent increase in GDP and the millennials constitute 34 per cent of the country’s population. With increasing income capacity and desire to lead a convenient life/life of comfort and leisure, millennials enjoy the potential to control consumption patterns of the country.
Besides, India is travelling like never before with varied aspirations to explore newer destinations across the world, both on shoe-string and lavish budgets. Family vacays to the US or Disneyland Paris, a self-drive trip with friends to New Zealand, a solo trip to Europe or extending a work trip to explore a city or take a break – there are travellers of all types in India. And let’s not forget to include luxury cruises on the list!
A few of the most interesting trends include Sleepcations, Bleisure, Sports Vacations and even thematic itineraries such as Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings shooting locations. Indian family vacations are predominantly leisure and comfort-based.
You have recently launched Intrepid Travel in India. How is adventure travel picking up among Indians?
The diverse offerings of Intrepid Travel have been well received in India and strengthened our endeavor to address unique requirements of India’s leisure traveller market.
Through this collaboration, we have offered Intrepid Travel’s bouquet of travel products in the country while focusing on Tier II and III markets. With most youngsters (25 to 35 years) opting for experiential travel, adventure tourism has undoubtedly become a hot trend. With travellers keen to opt for experiences, we see potential of a double-digit growth in this segment.
What is your take on India’s MICE market?
Travel agencies are evolving and upgrading their MICE offerings in response to rising demand. Our focus for this year includes extravagant events, new unexplored locations and innovative ideas. At FCM, we are proud to have catered to different sectors in the country ranging from industries such as automobile, paints, telecommunications and insurance to pharmaceuticals, healthcare and energy.
In India, MICE is definitely witnessing an upswing in 2018. However, India faces certain challenges when compared to neighbouring countries. The introduction of the GST Bill and not–so-aggressive marketing campaigns clubbed with higher operational cost (due to taxation) puts India behind in world ranking.
Upgrading facilities for MICE, budget constraints, need for innovation in offerings to MICE clients, need for better infrastructure facilities and safety are other key issues. Another challenge which the tour operators foresee is the fact that Indian restaurants are aplenty in all European cities, USA, Japan, Korea and even in China. Whereas, specialty restaurants offering foreign cuisines are not as easily available in India. To address this, the Government of India needs to offer attractive incentives for developing MICE and evolve strategic aggressive marketing program.
