India is going to be huge on the travel and tourism landscape that destinations have already started seeing India in a very different light over the last few years and especially in the post-pandemic era
What have been the key highlights of your first year at VFS Global in Tourism Services?
To summarise the one year of being at VFS Global in Tourism Services, it has been a journey of discovery of travel and tourism on a different scale because in this role, I have an opportunity to facilitate tourism promotional and operational management work for multiple destinations. Catering to their expectations in an effective manner has been very rewarding. I am happy to be still very much engaged in the business of outbound tourism from India, stay connected with travel trade partner-friends I have made over the last decade plus.
What are your plans for this year?
I was at a recent Tourism India Alliance Conference and I had shared some emerging trends. India is going to be huge on the travel and tourism landscape – inbound, outbound and domestic travel. Destinations have already started seeing India in a very different light over the last few years and especially in the post-pandemic era, there is a lot of focus on India but there are also questions on how best to handle Indian travellers.
India, as a tourism source market, is increasingly demanding destinations to come up with different strategies for different travel audiences, who are discerning in their tastes and asks for varied experiences. This is an important trend of changing dynamics of the Indian travel consumer. India offers a broad spectrum of target audience segments that destinations could cater to: families with young children or multi-generational, young Indians, active seniors, teenagers, cruise travellers, wedding groups, and the MICE sector. All segments present distinctive opportunities for destinations to tailor-make their offerings and communicate the relevant messages to attract them over. .
The other perspective is regional traveller. While there are psychographic commonalities within audience segments, there could be regional nuances that destinations have to take note of. Some different strokes could be required for regional source markets.
Looking ahead, there are also some trends that are emerging. One that I have been talking about with trade partners is “go slow, take the flow”. Many Indians now prefer a more immersive travel experience rather than rushing through a packed holiday taking pictures. They would like to savour the delights of the destination and feel the local vibes better.
I am summing up another trend as ”heal myself, be kind to the world”. Post-Covid, many travellers have started opting for travel to relax and rejuvenate themselves. Generally, Indian audiences who are introspective and seeking personal well being when they travel will seek out experiences in destinations that enable them to refresh themselves. How are destinations going to help with that? And there is greater awareness about global warming and that is going to emerge very strongly in the next decade. So, experiences that are kinder to earth and eco-friendly will appeal more and more to the Indian travel audiences.
A final trend is what I call “stolen moments”. Travellers will seek out special, unique moments that make up a memorable trip. For instance, I was in Prague and was admiring immensely the castles, beautiful architecture, arts and cultural scenes and streets filled with wonderful shopping experiences. But, one experience stood out for me and my fellow travellers – as we were walking down this street, we discovered a Cocoa restaurant. Everything was cocoa. It was spicy cocoa, bitter cocoa and other flavours. For about one and a half hours, we were sitting and we were just sipping away the different cocoa drinks. It was my “stolen moment” highlight.
Travellers are going to ask for that stolen moment and destinations could offer such stolen moments. People are going to ask, what is that interesting experience for two hours that makes my holiday magical with my family or my wife?
How is Srithar, or VFS Global Tourism Services, responding to these trends and supporting different destinations?
I think the privilege of having been involved in India for the last decade plus has been that there is a lot of learnings I have taken. There are a lot of wise people to listen to, share data insights and notes with and digest meaningful content. Some of my opinions about how destinations can promote have been shaped by the insights that I have gathered from seasoned travel professionals in the room. I am sharing what I feel is an aggregation of points that experts have given me, together with my own observations and knowledge about the market.
So from that sense, we ideate together with destinations, like Bintan or Czechia, how best present their offerings in creative, effective and engaging ways to the Indian audiences. So if I talk about Bintan, which is 60 minutes ferry ride away from Singapore, it is such a beautiful island and needs to be discovered more. Working with Bintan Resorts, we are looking at how best to communicate about Bintan and get Indians to discover its delights. How do we present the content in a manner that is going to be engaging to the Indian audiences?
For Czechia, it is also about perhaps letting them talk about their unknown hidden gems. The castles are great, the walkways are magical, it is like a fairyland. How do you communicate some of this to the Indian audiences and also what are some of the other aspects, culinary or art, how do you add that aspect and communicate that to the Indian audience, which is very diverse, multilingual and multi-generational.
We enable and facilitate destinations to bring their offerings to their target audiences. Our discussions involve data and market insights, to help shape strategies and action plans providing the desired results for the destinations.
"
