Trippin" on rupee still

Despite the rupee continuing its free fall, the travel industry is upbeat about its prospects. According to experts, the industry has taken to low-priced travel packages to offset the pressure caused by the rupee depreciation.

Madhavan Menon, managing director, Thomas Cook (India), says the falling rupee has not hindered the growth of the travel industry. “While the rupee has been depreciating, the costs of travel packages have been brought down to increase the volumes,” he said at the sidelines of the fourth edition of TravelRave 2013 organised by the Singapore Tourism Board.

According to Menon, there has not been any drop in outbound bookings, which have registered 22-23 per cent growth during the summer over the last year.

Menon also feels that the rupee is not overvalued and expects the currency to depreciate further systematically. “A year from now, I guarantee the rupee will be weaker. But it is unlikely to hamper the travel business,” he said.

While leisure travel is growing at a healthy level, according to industry officials, corporate travel has been impacted.

“The leisure business has done well in the first quarter but we are currently impacted by the reduced travel spends of the companies. Ticketing business in the corporate segment has seen a drop and we are trying to offset it by offering good package deals to companies,” said Rajeev Wagle, managing director, Kuoni Travel Group, India.

In a recent survey report published by TripAdvisor, plans for domestic holidays show no detraction from travellers’ estimates for 2013 taken at the beginning of the year, indicating that domestic vacations stay stable.

“Providing that little extra impetus to domestic travel, 19 per cent respondents in the survey said they replaced their international holiday with a domestic one on account of the fall in rupee value. Foreign holidays see a marginal dip but traveller sentiment stays optimistic on heading overseas for vacation,” the report stated.

Nikhil Ganju, country manager, TripAdvisor India, said “The survey indicates that while budgetary concerns, economic uncertainty and the weakening rupee are driving travellers to alter their holidays, they don’t seem ready to entirely abandon their vacation plans as yet. Though the balance may have tipped marginally in favour of domestic holidays, overall holiday estimates remain healthy with 60 per cent respondents still looking at taking between two to four holidays this year.”

Chee Pey Chang, executive director, South Asia, West Asia Africa and Planning Projects, Singapore Tourism Board said that Singapore had seen a 10 per cent growth in its tourists arrivals from India in January-February 2013 over the same period last year.

MakeMyTrip also feels that instead of people cutting down on their trips, they are more likely to reduce on spends. Mohit Gupta, chief business officer, holidays, MakeMyTrip, said Indian travellers were now interested in trying out new destinations.

Talking about the online travel platform, Stuart Crighton, co-founder and CEO, Cleartrip, said the online ticketing market had attained a certain maturity in India, while everything else, starting from packages to hotel accommodations, were in a nascent stage.

The company, however, is looking at the mobile networking space to garner more volumes and revenues. “Our focus is to grow aggressively in this space,” said Crighton.

soumonty.kanungo@mydigitalfc.com

Trippin" on rupee still