A&K Launches Outbound Division; To Tap, Egypt, East Africa, Uganda

Jyoti Koul - New Delhi

Abercrombie and Kent (A&K) recently launched its outbound division from India. This division will promote markets like Egypt, East Africa and Uganda. The prime targets for these markets initially would be metro cities such as Delhi and Mumbai. In the first phase of promotion, it will pick up Egypt for which it has teamed up with the Oberoi group and Mercedes Benz. The target audience has been identified as the upper crust of the Indian society.

While commenting on its target audience Vikram Madhok, managing director A&K India Pvt Ltd informed, "Our primary target is the affluent businessman who is cash rich but time poor, followed by corporates and families. A&K has pioneered the concept of luxury holidays to exotic destinations. No other tour operator can match our global reach, our infrastructure and commitment to quality. With the company's global presence, infrastructure and reputation it only made sense to provide the domestic traveller an option to holiday abroad." He further added that, “The distinguishing feature of A&K services will be 'adventure by day and luxury by night'. Besides, A&K is also ensuring carefree holidays for Indian outbound travellers. With each group there will be a personal bell boy who will take care of packing and unpacking the luggage and there will be a personal butler too since most of the Indian travellers do not like to experiment with food. There will be a guardian angel with each group who will iron the rough corners of travelling. The guardian angel will take care of things like passports, visa, and foreign exchange etc.”

Speaking about the different markets, Nikhil Kumar, head, Outbound Tourism, Abercrombie & Kent India Pvt Ltd, said, “Even though these are three different markets but they are very special and hold a lot of promise. Egypt with its historical and mythical charm offers something new to Indians who have discovered Europe thoroughly. Secondly, South Africa has been explored, but we wanted to showcase the other equally vibrant side of Africa, hence we zeroed I on east Africa. In Africa, A&K owns luxury safari lodges in the pristine wilderness that includes Chief's Camp and Chobe Chilwero in Botswana, Olonana in Masai Mara; it has exclusive rights to camps with some of the Africa's finest game-viewing and a fleet of comfortable group transport vehicles. Thirdly, Uganda is a totally new destination for India and we will initially promote its soft adventure activities,"

As of now the company has not set any targets with respect to the revenue generation from this division. According to Kumar, "We need to have patience till we reap the harvest. But we are positive that the Indian traveller will patronize our services as the products promise to offer unique experience."