Younger travellers driving tourism rebound: Thomas Cook India's Menon

Madhavan Menon speaks to Akshara Srivastava about the drivers behind this growth and what lies ahead for the Indian travel and hospitality landscape

Tours and travel agency Thomas Cook India reported strong numbers in the second quarter of this financial year. While the consolidated income from operations rose 50.9 per cent to Rs 1,843.4 crore from the year-ago period, its net profit zoomed 5,641.5 per cent to Rs 47.1 crore from Rs 80 lakh in the same period last year. Executive chairman Madhavan Menon speaks to Akshara Srivastava about the drivers behind the growth, and what lies ahead for the Indian travel and hospitality landscape. Edited excerpts:

What are the key factors driving your income and profit?

The first is the industry’s recovery. We've seen all businesses, including foreign exchange, across our group beginning to fire up. There is a return to normalcy from where we were somewhere in early calendar year 2022. Year-on-year, we’re seeing stock growth numbers, which will settle over a period of time, but the industry is firing on all cylinders.

The second aspect, which is more important to us, are the productivity benefits arising out of cost savings. We've re-engineered our processes, putting more technology into place. As a result, we are saving about 32 per cent at a consolidated level (29 per cent for Thomas Cook) compared to 2013.

How much has the industry recovered from the pandemic? Is there a shift in the way people are approaching vacations now?

I think a couple of things have changed. The average age of travellers has seen a drop of seven to ten years. Group sizes have become smaller. Utilisation of leaves has grown dramatically, which has led to people taking more frequent breaks. All these are contributing to a rebound in tourism.

In terms of volumes, domestically, we have recovered close to 90 per cent of pre-Covid travel. It is slower in long-haul travel at about 56 per cent, while short-haul is at 78-80 per cent. Our corporate travel segment has also recovered at 130 per cent.

West Asia is a big short-haul destination. How has the ongoing war impacted business in this domain?

I see Egypt has suddenly come to a standstill. We did initially see some slowdown into Dubai. Even our Dubai-based business -- Desert Adventures -- reported decline in bookings. But forward bookings are picking up again, because people realise the UAE is far away from the site of conflict. Israel, obviously has stopped completely.

What are some travel trends that you see being carried into the next year?

I think people are looking for experiences and are getting adventurous. They're talking about doing things outside the beaten track. Be it cycling, and on cruises.

India discovered cruisers in the form of Cordelia during the pandemic. We have seen a lot of interest in cruises. They are the new travel product that India is going to see a lot of growth in, although it's still small numbers.

The second important trend is the fact that people are taking more holidays than they have done in the past. These are a combination of short-haul and long-haul trips. This is also because of the development in the country-- more airports and hotels have come up.

People’s travel aspirations have also been aided by higher salaries, and higher attrition rates. Our economy has grown and wealth creation is reaching a never-seen-before level and there has been some trickle-down effect of that.

The forward bookings for travel services are up by 32 per cent for the festival season and beyond.