Tradebytes

Thomas Cook domestic to focus on road and rail holidays

Chetan Kapoor - Mumbai

Sandiip Srivastava Associate Vice President and Head, Leisure Travel (Domestic), Thomas Cook

As the prices of ATF continue to trouble airlines, Thomas Cook is looking at reaping the benefits of domestic tourism by promoting road and rail holidays. Says Sandiip Srivastava, associate vice president and head, Leisure Travel (Domestic), Thomas Cook, "We are trying to move away from the concept of seasonality and want to promote the idea that a domestic holiday is available anytime of the year. Today, one tries to take a holiday trip as much as one can, especially the weekend getaway - two nights and three days or three days and four nights - which we are trying to promote through rail and road holidays as we see a reasonable shift from the airlines to other means of transport."

He adds, "There is a huge demand by the ITeS where high stress levels exist and the objective of our holidays is not sight seeing but to relax in spas and resorts." Also, it plans to promote destinations like Dapoli, Tarkali, Ratnagiri and beaches of Maharashtra in particular, besides working closely with the state tourism boards to upgrade properties to a three-star category.

Furthermore, it is the company's buying power that will "drive a very good price with the hotels to make an end-to-end all inclusive cost," says Srivastava. "We want to change the mindset of people who claim that we are expensive, when in reality our rates are actually lower than most players simply because of the joint buying power of Thomas Cook and TCI. Therefore we shall give customers a value proposition and volume of hotels with Thomas Cook-established quality which would be complete value for money."

In terms of packages, the travel company has tied-up with IRCTC and is in the final stages to aligning with an airline for all-inclusive deals. In addition, it will work on regional-specific strategies and capitalise on community-specific and senior citizens holidays. Prime metros and state capitals will be its major markets to drive business from.