 "Nicholas Lim")
Travel company Trafalgar, the flagship brand of UK-based Travel Corporation, is planning to engage the Indian travellers far more extensively and ramping up its presence in the country.
Nicholas Lim, regional director Trafalgar (Asia) said that with its itineraries that bring together travellers from different nationalities for a guided tour by a designated travel director, Trafalagar has managed the highest growth rate in India. In conversation with Ruchika Chitravanshi, Lim talks about the company's goals and more. Edited excerpts:
Last year you got into many tie-ups in India to promote Trafalgar. How has the response been?
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We have done well out of India this year. And in 2014 we want to further improve the experiences. We have seen a nearly 88% growth in passengers opting for Trafalgar service. Majority of our customers here have gone for our first class luxury products.
We have a very affluent and well educated clientele in India including professionals like doctors, lawyers, engineers. Of all the countries that we operate in, India has seen the highest growth even though it is from a lower base.
How will you drive your growth in India in 2014?
We will push for Trafalgar as a brand, both our first class and our cost saver packages. It is not necessary that people who take our cost saver packages go shopping for a Birkin bag.
It is just that they get more time on their itineraries compared to the luxury package where we have a lot more activities including our Be My Guest program. Each traveller is hosted for a meal by a local family, which gives a great view into the culture and traditions of any country he is visiting.
Are you exploring new geographies to add to the list of your itineraries? Are you going to provide tours for India?
We have put South America on the map. Currently we want to focus on the markets that we are servicing. Last we added Japan, where work is still in progress. India is not on the list right now. But when the market demands it, we will look at it.
Last time you set up an office here with a country manager. Where do you go from here?
We are building our team in India due to the rise in demand we have witnessed here. We have hired a Director, Sales, to build relationships with our customers, travel agencies etc.
We plan to hire 30 more people in the next five years in our India team, all other things remaining constant. India has moved up from being just a developing market. It is contributing 2% to our global number, which is not big but it is growing.
