Creative Travel Re-Brands Conference Division, Pulls Out Of Far East Market

Neeti Chopra- New Delhi

Rohit Kohli

Forging a new identity, Creative Travel is set to make a mark in the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) segment in India. The company has recently re-branded its meeting and conference division as Planit! but is yet to make an official announcement. Confirming the news Rohit Kohli, director of operations, Creative Travel, in an exclusive with Express Travel &Tourism said, "The underlying reason for re-branding has been to avoid confusion. Creative Travels has always been recognised as a destination management company specialising from hotels bookings to exclusive excursions. But that Creative has also expanded into a complete meeting and conference management company was not being recognised. Therefore, it was necessary to promote it under a specific genus."

Besides product segmentation, the company is also investing in conference technology and is developing a software for conference purposes called CreCon. "The new product incorporates the business and quality assurance aspects to optimise application results. This high-end user-friendly software will be constructive for all purposes right from registration to complete finance planning. It will be effective in giving detailed reports, as it will have 150 detailed types of reporting which can be done within few minutes. An investment of Rs six lakh has already been made into this," he further added.

Planit! provides services such as venue and site selection, financial planning and budgeting, preparing a checklist of things to do, marketing assistance, overseas promotion, enhancing accessibility and transport, total logistics management for the event, reservation of hotels, airlines and railways, pre and post tours among others. Talking about his marketing strategy, Kohli said, "At present, we are focussing on the high-end market only. We handle every meeting and conference as an event with the highest levels of professionalism. Our network of representative offices all over the Indian sub-continent equips us to handle meetings of all types and sizes. In Europe, we have appointed two specialised MICE representatives to market our product. Besides, we have been regularly participating in MICE focused trade fairs"

Kohli is upbeat about the year 2006 for receiving more conference business by adopting a focused approach. The company has booked three major international conferences to be held in India in 2007 and 2008.On the other hand, as far as inbound tours business is concerned, Creative Travel has decided to pull out of certain markets that include China, Taiwan, Far-East except Hong Kong. "These are low paying markets with no yield. The kind of investment needed for these markets is three times of that required for US and UK," says Kohli.