Newstrack

Marrott's Travel Express to continue servicing corporate clients

Andrea Lopez - Mumbai

Mumbai-based Marrott's Travel Express, which has been in operation since 1995, specialising in domestic and international ticketing and affiliated industries - hotels, car rentals and cruises, plans to continue its niche in the corporates and MICE segment. Speaking to Express TravelWorld, chairman and managing director, Ratan Marrott said, "The number of people travelling in the recent years has increased manifold, particularly in the corporate segment, and we will continue to service them. We follow an upfront policy with our clients and our motto is service." The company primarily sells vacations to the US, Europe and the Far East, and packages to China and Australia as well. As travel service representatives of American Express, the company also specialises in the business of foreign exchange.

With years of experience in the travel industry, Marrott also offered insights into the existing travel industry and the possible trends that he foresees. He is of the opinion that while outbound tourism will continue to surge like never before, India's huge domestic tourist market cannot be ignored.

In fact, he is vociferously against Indian travel conventions being held abroad. "We should be promoting India as a destination. If conventions are going to be held abroad, aren't we depriving the locals of tourism-generated revenue?" remarks Marrott. On cruising, although the company sells cruise packages, he feels that the concept is still underdeveloped in India and therefore the market for the same is still small. According to Rakesh Marrott, the company's CEO, a new segment that currently looks very promising is event management, in the form of offsites and weddings. "This is a good market to get into and we currently successfully operate in this segment as well," he concluded.