The Hindu Business Line : Action's all at home

MANY, many moons ago, management at the Taj Hotels in Goa realised that while foreign tourists were coming in droves during the November to March season, everyone stayed away during the monsoon. So from June to September, the hotels were mostly deserted. Several brainstorming sessions later, an idea was born: why not sell Goa in the monsoon? Its very solitude could be romantic, even exotic. One of Goa's own, cartoonist Mario Miranda, was commissioned to create the visuals, and thus a campaign was born. With greatly reduced tariffs, domestic travellers were invited to experience Goa in the monsoon. The result? It soon became one of the busiest seasons.

The hospitality and travel industries have learned that it pays to pitch to the domestic traveller. This is especially true in the case of luxury hotels and resorts, and the airlines. The efforts have paid off: while international tourism plummeted by up to 30 per cent worldwide in the months following the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US last year, domestic tourism in India grew by almost 42 per cent, according to the Department of Tourism.

"It helped cushion the blow," says N. Prakash, Director (Sales - Southern region) for Taj Hotels, of their efforts to pursue domestic travellers in the last couple of years. "We can't entirely make up the dollar component that we lost, but we did make up for it at least partially, and it helped focus our energies on the domestic market."

To be sure, the growth last year may be an aberration, spurred by a `homing instinct' - a desire to stay close to home - given the war-like situation at home and abroad. But even before September 11, there were sure signs that domestic tourism was on the rise, encouraged by growing disposable incomes, cheaper air fares and hotel tariffs, an inclination to go on two or three trips in a year, improved infrastructure, and a subtle shift in attitude. "People want to spend more quality time with their families now," says Vijay Srinivasan of Club Mahindra, the flagship brand of Mahindra Holidays and Resorts India Ltd. "And they look for occasions to do things with them."

Club Mahindra, a leader in the `lifetime holiday' business, has seen its revenues grow by about 70 per cent in the last couple of years, he says, and membership by 40 per cent. With prices ranging from Rs 85,000 to Rs 5 lakh, it has seven properties, including new ones in Manali, Mussoorie and Kufri. Srinivasan expects the timeshare business to grow because people inherently desire value-for-money propositions, and favour options with a family focus.

Certainly, cheaper airfares have also helped. "It used to be that flying to Malaysia or Dubai was actually cheaper than flying to some places in India," says Srinivasan. "As 50 per cent-60 per cent of our clients tend to travel by air to their holiday destination, the cheaper fares have really spurred holidaying."

One of the biggest beneficiaries is the hospitality industry. Luxury and leisure hotels took a beating last year as foreign tourists cancelled their holiday plans after September 11. Then came the attacks on the Parliament and the travel advisories, and all hopes of a respite were lost. But efforts to tap the domestic segment had begun even before, and that helped, says Taj's Prakash.

"We have had packages for a long time because we felt that this was an unexplored segment and that there was a lot of potential," he says. "With our spread of properties, it made sense to promote them through the year." Domestic travel peaks between April and August, on account of school vacations, and is active even in September-November, because of festival holidays and the availability of bonuses.

Taj introduced some packages - like the Best of Kerala and Best of Rajasthan - two years ago. Other concepts, like gift-a-holiday, and romantic and cultural holidays were also promoted. Last year, for the first time, a television campaign for Taj leisure hotels went on air. Post-September 11, the chain heavily promoted its properties in Goa, Kerala and Rajasthan, where it has over 15 hotels and resorts. Garden Retreats - like those in Chikmagalur and Coonoor - and resorts in Chennai and Kerala were pitched as being ideal for short breaks from the cities.

The chain also entered into co-branding arrangements with Indian Airlines, American Express cards (for corporate packages), Hutchison mobile service and others. The Pilgrim Holiday Offer at Taj Ganges, Varanasi and Taj Residency, Indore, for example, is a two-day package that included airport pick-up and drop-off, darshans, sightseeing, and even a Ganga snaan. The Indian Airlines-Taj offer, from July 15 to October 31 this year gets fliers a night's stay in a Taj Hotel for Rs 1,000 extra on a round-trip ticket.

"The tie-ups greatly helped mop up business," says Prakash. "We picked up a lot of new customers, as people recognised that it was great value for money," he says. Taj intends to extend some offers and continue to pitch to domestic travellers all-year.

That strategy is also being followed by the airlines; from Air Sahara's `steal-a-seat' and online auctions to Indian Airlines' (IA) Bharat Darshan to Jet Airways' `everyone-can-fly' fares, the domestic traveller is being courted like never before. The airlines, which were already hurting from a drop in business travel, have been very encouraged by the response, and are expected to make them a regular feature.

Jet has a monsoon hotel package to Kerala and Goa, besides 21-day advance purchase festival fares. Its partners include the Park Hotels, the Oberoi group, Leela Hotels, Radisson Hotels, ITC Hotels and Citibank. Apart from its promo with Taj Hotels, Indian Airlines also offers Heritage Odyssey and Flyaways packages, with special fares for various tourist destinations.

"Typically, foreign tourists make up about 30 per cent to 40 per cent of the occupancy on flights from Goa to Delhi during the season, but it dropped to about five per cent last year," says D. Murali, Regional Sales Manager, IA, Chennai. The number of domestic tourists on this route grew by about 30 per cent, he estimates.

IA's 21-day advance purchase scheme was targeted at a new segment of travellers, those who normally travel first class on train. "There are a lot of people who avail of LTC (Leave Travel Concession), and we gave them a further 30 per cent discount," says Murali. Targeting domestic travellers is important, he says, because the numbers are huge, plus people have the money now, and want to travel in comfort.

Jet Airways, too, instructed its sales teams to specifically target banks and public sector units, where employees avail of LTC, says a spokesperson. It expects its festival fares to bring in new customers, and will continue its alliances with hotel chains.

Another important piece of the emerging picture of domestic tourism is advertising, which often gives the final push in favour of a destination. Advertising certainly had a big role to play in the evolution of Kerala, God's Own Country, as a major tourist destination, and also helps raise the profile of lesser-known destinations. "Advertising creates a buzz around a place and then the trade will push people into going there," says Sumanto Chattopadhyay, Creative Director at Ogilvy & Mather, which handles the Maharashtra tourism account.

"With the success of Kerala, State Governments have realised that if they use modern marketing techniques and professional advertising agencies, they'll get results," says Chattopadhyay, who created the `Maharashtra Unlimited' campaign that has won national and international praise and put little-known beaches in Maharashtra on the tourism map. "The idea in the campaign (and others like it) is to tell people: it's much closer than you think. That you don't have to go to exotic, expensive places abroad."

However, Chattopadhyay, who admits that he prefers to travel abroad because the facilities are better, says infrastructure remains very bad in most destinations, and that we still have a long way to go. Indeed, the poor quality of infrastructure is a major deterrent to other players in the industry, whose view of domestic tourism is not as rosy. "The industry has not taken off as we anticipated it to because infrastructure has not kept pace with growth," says Karti Chidambaram, Director of Countrywide Caravans Pvt. Ltd. The company was launched four years ago with a view to leasing caravans to foreign and domestic tourists who wish to drive comfortably with their families to various destinations. However, the business has been severely hamstrung by the Government's inaction in developing caravan trails and parks, he says.

"Tourism goes beyond simply building a cheap hotel on the beach," says Chidambaram, who now rents his five caravans only to movie stars for outdoor shoots. "There is a small market for alternative holiday options such as these, but unless the Government gets its act together and improves infrastructure, I don't see any significant growth forthcoming."

Nevertheless, expectations for the tourist season this year are high: business travel is bouncing back, and there are indications that foreign tourists might also be on their way. Occupancy levels in the luxury hotels in the metros are expected to grow by 15 per cent to 20 per cent. As for domestic tourists, they can expect more wooing; companies that continue their courtship of them stand to gain, predicts Mahindra's Srinivasan: "People are looking for safe, secure and familiar holiday options and for familiar brand names that will provide these - and we can only benefit from doing so."

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