SOTC Launches Holiday Pass

Charmaine Fernz - Mumbai

	Having just launched the Holiday Pass in Mumbai, we would look at doing the same in Delhi by May and later in the South, which would preferably be Chennai and Hyderabad, by the end of 2005
Neelu Singh

In an effort to make travel more accessible, Kuoni Group, recently announced the launch of the SOTC Holiday Pass. Says Neelu Singh, Business Head, SOTC Holiday Pass, "The Holiday Pass is a revolutionary product for the discerning traveller to explore all the countries of Europe at their own pace at just Euro 95 per day. Now, individual travellers can pick the countries and the cities they want to visit in Europe, decide the duration of stay in each city, choose their hotels and have their entire vacation charted out. The cost includes hotels, arrival airport transfers, sightseeing and inter-city train travel by Eurail Network and is applicable all across Europe. The SOTC Holiday Pass will also shortly be available for the continents of America and Australia at the cost of US$ 80, AU$ 85 per day respectively. The price for the US and Australia would include hotel stay, sightseeing and return airport transfers on both continents."

Explaining the workings of this new product and the need to launch, Singh said, "Apart from just the Holiday Pass, which is priced at Euro 50 per person. Through this initiative, SOTC Holiday Pass is partners with travel agents and empowers them to become holiday specialists. The Holiday Pass product will be distributed through ten select Preferred Sales Agents (PSA's), and will be presented as a co-branded product in association with the PSA's. Holiday Pass distribution model focuses strongly on partnership and all collateral's including booking screens, brochures are co-branded. The agents would be given PLBs and incentivisation. In doing this we would monitor the agents performance and based on the outcome would look at increasing the number. Having just launched in Mumbai, we would look at launching in Delhi by May and the South, which would preferably be Chennai and Hyderabad by the end of 2005. Subsequently, travellers who are not able to get in touch with relevant agents or deal offline can call our call centres for assistance."

Additionally, an online Internet booking system has been set up which PSA's can access through a unique username and password. The online system can be accessed by PSA's by logging onto www.sotcholidaypass.com

Elaborating on future growth, Singh said, "As it is our first year of launch our initial target would be to penetrate into the market but where figures are concerned, it ideally would be 20,000 passengers or more for 2005. We are looking at breaking even in the first year itself. We would certainly look at upgrading the new system in two phases in terms of product and distribution development and also setting up of a technology team. Through the SOTC Holiday Pass we would also look at promoting off-beat destinations, some which are Ireland, in a big way along with Eastern Europe, Spain, Portugal and Canada."

And finally in conclusion Singh mentioned that the SOTC Holiday Pass is a first of its kind product that will revolutionise the way a Free Individual Travellers designs a holiday. It provides a greater autonomy to individual travellers to have the choicest of experiences at a price that is easily calculable by the traveller himself. The customer will always be guaranteed hassle free arrangements and complete product customisation."