30 Minute Interview

‘We want to keep reinforcing our presence in the Indian market’

Kulwant Singh, managing partner of Lama Desert Tours & Cruises, was recently in India with the support of Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing, Indian Representative, Government of Dubai. He speaks about the company's India focus with Reema Sisodia.

Kulwant Singh Partner of Lama Desert Tours & Cruises

How do you see the Indian market? Do you predict any market trends?

India is making a remarkable mark on the world map. The boom in travel can be attributed to a number of reasons - an economic upswing, positive media coverage and awareness, development both in the urban and the rural areas, etc. Dubai on the other hand is also on a major development drive and I think both nations have a lot to share and imbibe from each other. The proximity between the countries will always be a tourism driver and the demand will only increase with time.

What strategy do you follow for the Indian market?

The Indian market has a mix of everything; it has the potential to pay for the most expensive hotels, and there is also a mass market which wants budget hotels. I think Dubai has everything to offer and in the next few years Dubai will have double rooms inventory that will cater to most of the needs of the Indian market. Our strategy is to thrive and create awareness in the Indian market. This will keep us on the priority list of their destinations and also keep us in touch with their growing demands.

Are there new partners you intend to work with in India or would you strengthen your old partnerships?

We are willing to work with new partners and they can be unlimited. One should restrict themselves with a handful of them but we are here to retain our existing partners as well. Our aim is to provide them with the best and most reasonable deals so that they yearn to return again.

Which region is an emerging business centre for you?

The metro cities have been good but smaller cities such as Pune, Ahmedabad and Chandigarh are showing aggressive growth. We want to spread our business to these smaller cities.

What is your present market share and what are your expectations in terms of percentage and revenue in the coming two years?

Lama currently gets 37 per cent of the Indian travel market share into Dubai, which is the largest any company could have from this market. In the coming two years we intend to increase our share with a growth of nearly 10 per cent, so we are aiming to have a 43 per cent share.

How successful has your India visit been, both for you and the hotel representatives that were part of your delegation?

Our visit to India has always been successful. We have been coming to India for over seven years now and every year we see a different spark in the Indian travel agents. There has been also 20 per cent increase in our invites every year and we see this as a positive trend.

This is the first time we had called some of our preferred hoteliers from Dubai to exhibit with us and they have been very impressed with the turnout in all the three cities of Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata and have promised to be with us every year. We are sure that next time we will have a bigger delegation of our preferred suppliers. This time we had Hyatt Regency, Movenpick, Royal Ascot, Highland Hotel and Emirates Hotels & Resorts.

Tell us something about the increased facilities on your website?

lama.ae is a complete travel solution for the B2B travel trade. Apart from live hotel allocations and hotel bookings, we also have the following features: live safaris and cruise bookings with live allocations, live city tour bookings with live allocations, group quotes ranging from two to five-star hotels with the basic inclusions of an Indian group traveling to Dubai, feature of different mark-ups for sub users, which means the main travel agent could set up markups for his preferred partners of their choice.