eyefortravel - Travel Distribution India '06

‘We will take Indian suppliers to the world’

Himanshu Singh Managing Director Travelocity India

Roshan Mendis Director Asia - Business Development & Supplier Relations Travelocity India

Travelocity's India managing director Himanshu Singh and Roshan Mendis, director Asia - Business development & supplier relations, tell Bhisham Mansukhani about the key differentiators that are likely to put Travelocity in the box seat in the online distribution revolution that is currently sweeping the Indian travel market

When will Travelocity's Indian edition be launched and how important is the Indian market?

We will launch within this fiscal year. India is the seventh Asian country we will have our presence. From a global perspective, India has become even more critical to our strategy with all the new entrants and the huge volume of demand being unlocked on the outbound and inbound front. The focus of Travelocity is to serve the Indian market but as the operations are scaled up, the NRI and foreigner market is also important. Content enrichment is also a significant USP. We are actively engaging suppliers and generating content. The fact that LCC's traditionally opt not to distribute inventory through the GDS and with the growth of this segment in India, it presents a huge opportunity. Jet Blue in the US distributes only through Travelocity.

What would you cite as the key differentiator for Travelocity in India, given the number of new entrants in this space off late?

Unlike most of the other business models adopted by our potential competition here, fundamentally we are different because we are in for the long haul and build strategic long term relationship with suppliers. We are not looking to work with specific suppliers at the height of the season and then bail out. We perceive the suppliers as business partners with common interest. From an Indian supplier's perspective, we are broadening the value proposition. Suppliers will have their inventory accessible to Travelocity clientele worldwide and not just in specific markets without any additional cost. The other clear differentiator is our website's global reach - we transacted close to US $ 7.5 billion, which translates into a huge communication and brand building exercise for our suppliers. We can package and present our suppliers' content. We are uniquely equipped to take the Indian suppliers to the world. Our footprint over the Pacific and Atlantic markets is simply unprecedented. Furthermore, we will bring the huge number of offline suppliers in India, especially in the mid-market segment online, enhancing the supply on the back of a seamless and reliable distribution system.