Chennai: Leading travel agency Thomas Cook India sees a growth of 20-25 per cent in its leisure business this year due to increasing outbound volume from tier II, III and IV cities. Tamil Nadu is a critical market accounting for about 10 per cent of overall leisure business with a year-on-year growth of 23 per cent.
“Now that things have stabilised, we are expecting growth of 20-25 per cent,” says Romil Pant, senior vice-president – Leisure Travel, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. The company saw growth of 13-17 % in 2016 and 2017 due to policy reforms. With tier II, III and IV cities emerging as major contributors, the company is focusing on strengthening its presence in these regions by expanding its network and launching regional tours, which includes regional language speaking operator, co-travellers and regional cuisine.
It was a huge success in TN, where it was launched few months back, he added. Tamil Nadu is a critical market for the company, which accounts for about 10% of Thomas Cook’s overall leisure business with a Y-O-Y growth of 23%.
“With several countries offering simple procedures on visa process, there is a growing interest among people to go to newer markets, new destinations,” Mr. Romil Pant said and added, “we are seeing lot of new tourism happening to places like Japan, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa and China.” On the domestic front, he said the emerging trend was to combine religious travel with a domestic trip. “If they go to Gujarat, they go to (pilgrimage place) Dwaraka and cover the entire Gujarat circuit”, Pant said.
“Last year, approximately we have done about 6,000 passengers on the international side. This year we will certainly cross 11,000 seeing the trend in forward booking. In domestic, we are looking at 3,000 passengers from about 1,800 last year”, he told reporters.
