Rail Holidays Are An Experience By Themselves: Iengar

Charmaine Fernz - Mumbai

Gopi R Iengar

A US $120 million business in 2004, a million passengers and a decade of success…all these facts speak about just one company - Rail Europe 4A. Having recently set up office in Mumbai, the company certainly has big plans for India. Elucidates the strategies lined up Gopi R Iengar, area manager - India and South Asia, Rail Europe 4A - India Liaison Office says, "The Company is basically a joint venture between the French and Swiss Railways along with other partners. Come July 21, we would complete 10 successful years. With a presence in the Indian market right from inception, we have six GSAs in the market with a turnover of about US$ 7 million and a 25-30 per cent growth.

“On market priorities, though Japan is our biggest market, India is certainly a key market. Considering the potential, our target for the first year would be to double our growth to 50 per cent and increase our market base."

Elaborating further Iengar says, "We have a wide variety of products on offer and Eurail is one of them apart from the national and regional passes. As Mumbai and Delhi are well-serviced market, we plan to tap other cities like Gujarat since it is a huge untapped market with a big FIT segment. The other cities include Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Lucknow and Chandigarh that have a lot of demand. For this, we would work closely with our GSAs to extensively promote Rail Europe 4A as an exciting rail holiday. It is a given fact that Indians need to experience a rail holiday as it a unique element of travel. Apart from the focus on FIT and group travel, the other segment would be business travelers, who could take extended weekend in Paris and much more. Considering the fact that Indians are price conscious, we would work closely with all European destinations to bring out value for money packages."

With the rise in the low cost carrier market, providing faster connectivity, what are the advantages of taking a rail trip? Asserts Iengar, there are a lot of price benefits and on-time performance. Apart from this, it is the total countryside experience that also matters. Indians also like to explore new options and that is what we offer. We also plan to further enhance the offerings we would conduct an annual training session for our GSAs as well as smaller training sessions for other agents to get better equipped with the product.