|
Newstrack
Travel Tours targets 50 franchise locations by end 2008
To enter into representations and tourism marketing
Gayatri Vijaykumar - Bangalore
Gopinath Nair |
In keeping with its aim to build a pan India travel company,
Bangalore based Travel Tours has announced plans of increasing its network primarily
in Tier II and Tier III cities through the franchise mode. Explaining the franchise
model to be adopted, Gopinath Nair, CEO, Travel Tours said, "The model
will be a full fledged one offering the entire gamut of travel services including
international and domestic ticketing, worldwide hotel reservation, MICE, car
rentals, holiday travels for individuals, package tours, trade fair tours and
adventure tours among the others." According to him the investment would
range from Rs 5 lakhs to Rs 10 lakhs depending on the category of the city which
would include a one-time franchise fee and an initial setup cost.
| In addition, Travel Tours will be entering into representations
and tourism marketing. Nair explained " We have launched a division
called Travel Air Representation which will focus on international and domestic
B2B tourism marketing and consultancy." |
The Company has signed up franchisees in Kochi, Lucknow, Whitefield
(Bangalore), Guwahati and Chennai and is in process of finalizing franchisees
in Mysore, Secunderabad, Chandigarh and a host of other cities and towns across
India and is targeting 50 franchise locations by the end of 2008. Established
in 1978 in Bangalore, the Company currently operates 11 owned offices across
five cities, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune and Delhi.
Talking about the trends in the industry, Nair said, “The travel industry
is on the verge of consolidation. Like in any other mature market there are
a lot of mergers, acquisitions and restructuring taking place. Only the real
big names and the really small players in the industry will survive. Those in
between might find themselves wiped out." Speaking about the company's
future plans, Nair added that Travel Tours were not averse to acquisitions.
"We will keenly evaluate acquisitions and build our own market. However
our expansion in Tier II and Tier III cities will be mainly through franchising,"
explained Nair.
|
