`In The Next Five Years, Our Target Is To Convert Our Turnover Into Profit’

Charmaine Fernz - Mumbai

Rajeev Duggal

Having been around with the group for a while and been instrumental in setting up various niche divisions, Rajeev Duggal, senior vice-president, SOTC has strategic plans for the division. "The year so far has seen the outbound market doing pretty well. It has been noticed that scheduled airlines have finally realised the potential of the Indian outbound market and with increased frequencies maybe we are now able to package destinations even better. However, one needs to realise that with increased airlines if the airfare becomes competitive, it will certainly boost the outbound market. India is now on the verge where tourism is going to hit the golden era and bearing this in mind, companies should be prepared for the escalation. It has been noticed that every business is compiling an exhaustive plan as to what can be done to maximise the potential of travel. Managers are presenting a marketing plan whereby they want to see exponential growth."

Elucidating the company's plans for the coming year, Duggal disclosed, "In the next five years, our target would be that our turnover should become our profit. Bearing that in mind, we are looking at special projects that travel has not seen so far. The focus will be mini-metros where people from smaller towns will be encouraged to travel. We are also vibrantly looking at the domestic market wherein we would be launching the state-of-the-art software for the Frequent Individual Traveller (FIT) for both inbound and outbound market. Frames which is our internal reservation software has also been extended to our supplier base abroad, which reduces the processes in stages. We have realised that the year 2005-06-07 would see the final user being even more mature. To keep up with this trend, there would be new and unexplored destinations on offer.”

Talking about niches in the travel business, Duggal divulged that, "The incentive business is doing pretty well and is of late witnessing good growth. In fact, a lot of research and development is being done in this area, as 90 per cent of clients are repeat customers. On the Indian front, we need organized players. We also need to realise that Indians are very cost conscious, they certainly want more for less. The trend nowadays is that the Indian traveller has changed as most of them are being educated on the trend of travel and even destination specific knowledge. The preferences are changing from shopping, to adventure or even cuisines the rise."