Bengaluru biggest market; expanding pilgrim portfolio with Ayodhya packages: Thomas Cook

Some of the favourite destinations of travellers from Bengaluru include Europe, Australia-New Zealand; Japan-Korea, Indonesia, Mauritius, Singapore, Dubai and Vietnam. Some of the new destinations are Azerbaijan and Georgia.

On the domestic front, Andamans, Kashmir, North East, Rajasthan and Kerala, and nearby hill stations like Coorg, Chikmanglur, Kabini, Ooty are  some of the favourite destinations for tourists from Bengaluru.

The cruise segment is also recording brisk business with 80 percent growth in demand.

“We are very bullish on the growth market that Bengaluru and Karnataka represent. We are investing deeply in this high potential market and are expanding our footprint in the region. We expect to see an uptick of 30 percent (in travellers) from Karnataka in 2024," said Romil Pant, Executive Vice President & Business Head – Holidays, Thomas Cook (India) Limited.

To expand business in the city, the company has launched a charter flight to Bhutan connecting the country directly with the city. It has invested around Rs 2 crore in the charter which is a full service airline and five flights will fly everyday with packages starting from Rs 92,000 per person.

"There is no direct connectivity from Bengaluru to Bhutan. One has to either go to Delhi or Kolkata. We are opening the Bhutan market for the South India. The charter is a Bhutanese carrier and there are 126 seats including business class. Flight time is three hours. We have booked about 25-30 customers in the last 4-5 days. This is a start and we will increase the charter space from other cities as well," Pant said.

The company has opened the Bhutan charter packages to travel agents and is expecting a lot of contribution from them. Around 18 percent of the firm's total holidays business comes from travel agents.

The company is also looking to hire tour managers in Bengaluru who speak Kannada. The number of tour managers has come down to 300 currently from 500 in pre-pandemic period.

Pant also said that the South India market has better international connectivity that helps to send more travellers outside the country.

Pilgrim portfolio

The company has also expanded its spiritual journeys portfolio.

Its spiritual tourism segment is witnessing 100 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth. While historically India’s seniors comprised a key segment for spiritual tours, the company has witnessed an uptick in demand from segments like multigenerational families, couples, millennials and Gen Z.

With the inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the company has introduced more pilgrim packages, including Chalo Ayodhya, Ramayana Trails, among others.

"There have been lot of queries for the Ayodhya packages not only from individuals but also from groups and corporates. Expect the queries to convert in the second or third week of February as currently there is a lot of rush in the temple town," Pant said.

Ayodhya has brought the spotlight on spiritual destinations, one of the largest travel segment in India. "One of our larger portfolio is pilgrimage and 20-25 percent of contribution comes from this segment for the domestic business."

Pant said that in terms of inbound market, non-Resident Indians (NRI) are a potential customer base for the Indian temple towns.

Constraint concerns

While the company's domestic holiday business has grown versus pre-pandemic level, its domestic plus international business has recorded 70 percent recovery. "This is due to constraints in airline capacity, visa capacity and manpower capacity in international markets. Despite having the demand we had to stop supply because of these issues. There will be some recovery this year in these aspects," said Santhosh Kanna, vice-president, Leisure Travel.

He expects the combined domestic and international business of the company to reach 95 percent of pre-Covid level.