Corporate House TAs Aim To Expand Their Travel Services

Reema Sisodia - Mumbai

Research has revealed an increase in preference by travel agencies associated with business and corporate houses to look into expanding their businesses from ticketing agents to that of the tour operating business. Apart from extending their services to other the general audience apart from their in-house businesses, today few feel the need to branch out in other operations than just being mere ticketing agents.

Viking Travels Pvt Ltd a division of the Yash Birla Group of Companies has decided to expand services further by launching their new leisure travel division in the coming months. Apart from the Birla Group, the Khilachand Group with their off shoot Kesar Travels Lts is also contemplating to venture into the tour operating business. Speaking about the proposed plan regarding the new business plan, John Daniel, manager, Kesar Travels Ltd, says, “The travel agent’s business is undergoing a lot of transformation and soon it would not be as lucrative as in the past. Business is shrinking both on the national and the international front. Hence today to survive and to grow it is essential to look into other avenues of business within the scope of travel.”

Sanjay Arya, managing partner, Keshav Travel, an individual venture of the Economic Transport business venture agrees to the former opinion. Says Arya, “Business is getting tougher by the day and one has to look at newer ways of survival. We as a company have tied up with Uniglobe to get a strong branding to go with the company. Getting into more specialised services and finding out ones niche business area would be improtant strategies for future survival. Sports tourism is one area which we are a keen to further, as we have already worked on it in the past. Organising incentive group tour is also an positive business option which we are pursuing.”

Highlighting the Viking plans, Jyot Jhaveri, head-leisure, Viking Travel Pvt Ltd said, “The company is planning to take one step at a time. Initially we would operate amongst our strong client base, which has accumulated through the years on basis of our service and performance. We now would like to take the company forward through new ventures and initiatives. I would not like to divulge to much about the plans but would only say that we are working out long term strategies especially for the FIT segment.”

Special customised packages designed for its clients is what the company aims to pursue. They do not intend to launch their product immediately in the general market, rather they prefer to work with their existing clients, establishing themselves further and then venturing all out in the market. Advertising, marketing campaigns etc would all be part of the future plans. Jhaveri further added that, “Our decision to launch the new leisure division was also a fall-out of the demand which we received from our existing customers. Since we were providing them with complete ticketing facilities, they requested us to extend our services further to other areas of tourism and travel operations.”

In Gujarat too, there have been few companies that have ventured into allied travel services. For example, Green Channel a part of the Cadila Pharmaceuticals have already expanded their services three years ago. They are serious about spreading their network both nationally and internationally. Says, Victor Simon,of Green Channel based in Ahmedabad, “We have definite plans to open offices in other cities such as Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and others and in UK and Kenya on the international front.”