Austrian Airlines, ANTO Offers ‘Free’ Packages To Woo Indians

Anupama Anand - New Delhi

In a bid to keep pace with growing competition as well as procure a bigger slice of the Indian outbound pie, Austrian Airlines along with the Austrian National Tourist Office have launched two promotional packages - city package and city/resort package - available to only those passengers who buy an Austrian airline ticket to Vienna between April 16 and July 31, 2004.

Commenting on the unique initiative Bernhard Baeck, country manager, Austrian Airlines said, "We want to underline that the idea behind it is to see Indian passengers spending their whole holiday in Austria. The limited offer is valid only for Delhi-Vienna-Delhi sector and not for onward journeys. Vienna has emerged as one of the most popular leisure destination in the world for its culture, scenic beauty and safety and we want it to become the most popular destination in India as well."

Christine Mukherjee, director, Austrian National Tourist Office India, added, "We are facing tough competition from the South-East-Asian countries and in order to counter, we have planned to come out with destination marketing with a difference."

The 'city packages' includes free accommodation and breakfast up to four nights in four and five star hotels, with meals at Indian restaurants in Austria, and the option to choose from Vienna City Card, Salzburg City Card and Innsbruck City Card. While the 'City/Resort Packages' offer provides the option to stay at the best spa resorts in the world like Rogner Bad Blumau and Sonnenhof Achensee apart from other benefits like breakfast, absolutely free.

The Indian FIT traveller, pointed out Baeck, would find the packages attractive for its competitive price of Rs 36,000, which is just the cost of the ticket. As a matter of fact, Austria has been witnessing a steady rise in the FIT segment over the last couple of years. Statistics reveal that the Indian visitors who used to spend an average of two nights in Vienna are now willing to spend a week, try soft adventure and venture beyond the cities.

Confident of receiving around three to four thousand passengers through these packages, Baeck believes that this would provide a growth of eight per cent in terms of tourist arrivals as compared to last year. Incidentally, ANTO is expecting the growth graph to touch the 30 per cent mark, which would include 15 per cent from FIT and 10 per cent from group travel.

When asked about the carrier's strategy, Baeck said, "We are adopting such strategies to develop a new focus in the long range network to be able to exploit new opportunities in the potential markets of Asia and Australia, which are strategically important economic regions in the world. The endeavours have already been bearing fruit."