Trade Bytes

R J Trade Wings enters into JV with Chinese travel corporation

Jyoti Koul - New Delhi

R J Trade Wings Pvt. Limited recently signed a joint venture agreement for five years with the largest travel corporation in China - China International Tourism Services (CITS) - with prime focus on increasing tourism exchange between India and China.

This announcement comes in wake of the bilateral agreement between the two countries with support from the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. R J Trade Wings is in the process of setting up the new entity that will be called CITS Trade Wings Ltd, and the establishment will have four directors, two each from CITS and R J Trade Wings.

In an exclusive with Express TravelWorld, RJ Agarwal, president, RJ Trade Wings Pvt. Ltd. said, "At Trade Wings we are concentrating on SAARC countries. After China, we are negotiating with Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh to sign such agreements. We have already signed a similar joint venture with Ceylon tourism."

Currently, China's outbound traffic is over six million tourists per year, of which India's share is around 200 to 300 tourists. But as per the JV agreement the target for the coming year is at least 5000 tourists. To attract tourists from China, R J Trade Wings will be launching two separate itineraries for the Buddhist circuit and golden triangle.

Having maintained a low profile, Trade Wings has a turnover of Rs 850 crores and is targetting an increase of 10 per cent this year.

The company has diversified into all segments of travel business ranging from air cargo to sea cargo, ticketing to hotel booking, car rental to visa services and from travel insurance to foreign exchange. The company also owns and operates Trade Wings Institute of Management and a hotel in Goa.