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..India Business Report: Business
Bites
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 Every
week Ronnie Screwvala lunches with India's corporate bigwigs
in BBC World's acclaimed business programme Business Bites.
Filmed in some of the best restaurants in India, the programme
takes those people defining the country's economy away from
the formality of a TV studio to offer an insider's look at
the industries being examined.
This
Sunday's edition of Business Bites features two of the most
high profile leaders from the travel and tourism industry
in India -- Ranjit Malkani, Chairman and CEO, Kuoni Group
and Peter Kerkar, CEO, Cox & Kings.
India has been ranked the second fastest growing travel and
tourism economy in the world, one spot ahead of China. With
more and more people wanting to travel to India, the prospects
for the industry look promising. The discussion revolves around
the scope of domestic tourism, change in the business model
of travel agent businesses, potential of a new travel destinations
and online bookings.
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On
the emerging travel agency model
Peter
Kerkar,
CEO, Cox & Kings
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Kerkar
dwells, "I think commissions are unique to the
business travel segment and most of us have moved away
from a commission led income to a travel management
approach. In terms of tour operator segment, inbound
and outbound we are aggregate service providers; we
do not operate in a commissioned environment. We are
used to dealing with a net commission based income.
The future is very well mapped out. The small mama-papa
shops that are very valuable to us will have to re educate
themselves to a new advisory-based business model."
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Ranjit
Malkani,,
Chairman and CEO,
Kuoni Group
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Malkani says, "The travel agency model is dying
and you have different segments of markets booking in
different ways. In tour operator it means buying a brand.",
"Domestic tourism is un quantifiable. There are
300 million tourists a year of which tourists is 60
million. And there must be 500 thousand tour operators
actually operating in the market and this is the biggest
opportunity for anybody in India to build a Mc Donald's
like franchisee system and build a huge domestic travel
company. I think this is the biggest opportunity that
will be in India today. And the guys who miss this,
will regret," he further adds.
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On the scope of outbound travel
Malkani
says, "In fact there is a lot of money
in the Indian system. That's really driving
outbound travel. Also airfares are low and dollar
is cheap. I think overall it's going to be a
record breaking year."
Kerkar
adds, "Travel has become a lifestyle product.
It's become a necessity in terms of what they
like doing and enjoy doing and I think all of
us want to take a holiday. It's part of our
psyche."
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