Women increasingly travelling solo out of India
Chennai: Indian travellers are showing interest in exploring newer destinations like Eastern Europe, South America, Spain and others, said a senior group official of the multinational The Travel Corporation (TTC).
He also said the other interesting trend is that a lot of solo women are travelling overseas from India.
“There is good interest among Indian travellers to explore Eastern Europe, Canada, Spain, Portugal, Egypt, Peru, Costa Rica, Ireland, Italy, South America and others,” Anthony Lim, Managing Director, Asia told IANS on Wednesday here.
“Lot more female professionals including young mothers now prefer to travel solo out of India. This is a new trend we see,” Lim added.
The $2 billion multinational travel and tour group TTC will soon launch its luxury travel product Luxury Gold in India, targeting high net worth Indian tourists for overseas destinations as it sees good market potential, Lim said.
He also said the company is in talks with Middle East and European airlines for travel tie-up out of India.
According to him, the initial response for 2019 is good from Indian travellers.
Lim said while TTC’s other service offering Insight Vacations is a premium travel product, the new Luxury Gold would offer exclusive VIP experience for the guests.
“For instance, the travelling group will have exclusive access to iconic sites when they are closed for public. The guests can also meet prominent local citizens, members of royal families,” Lim said.
He said food is not an issue nowadays for most Indian travellers overseas as vegetarian food is also available.
“We take our guests to reputed or Michelin rated restaurants where genuine vegetarian food is also available. We also make necessary arrangements upfront,” Lim said.
He said the company is open to have a celebrity brand ambassador for its new product in India.
Queried about the competition from online travel agencies, Lim said: “Online agencies are growing. But they offer only the basic services like ticket or hotel bookings. Whereas offline agencies go a step further and assist in planning the trip and even visa formalities.”
