Usher of a New Era - Domestic Tourism & Travel
We (India Hotel Review), the Online travel agency started our operations in the year 2007. With an idea of catering to the mindsets of budget travellers, we gauged the contemporary travel trends undertaken by the Indian vacationers and closely understood the hidden potential of domestic tourism. Today with our strong foothold in the niche destinations, budget destinations and traditional destinations of India, we have been successful in serving the all sects of travelers. Without adding any hidden costs, we since our inception always made hotels and tours offerings with the motto of “what you see is What you get”. Covering the list of 10,000 hotels pan India and having our focus on budget destinations, the repeated initiatives by us have envisaged new type of travel trend of bringing all divest interests to emerging ambits of travel industry. Sharing more deep ties with the states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharshtra and Jammu &Kashmir, we have have induct into new recognition of state affiliations. This authorized partnering has given us better sense of understanding the domestic travel circuits of India.
The recent FICCI conclave held in the first week of August announced the usher of new era in the form of domestic tourism and i was personally their to attend whole event on th 10th of August 2011, at hotel The Lalit, New Delhi. India`s performance in tourism sector has been good with the sector witnessing an increase in the Foreign Tourist Arrivals(FTA`s) from 2.038 million to 5.58 million between 2002-2010. However, it should be noted that the influx of foreign tourists registered a dip of 2.2 percent during 2009 over 2008. To be noted, in the same period when FTA’s clocked a negative growth, domestic tourists visits have risen to 650 million in 2009, showing growth of 15.5%.
Realizing IHR’s contribution in pushing the growth of domestic tourism , FICCI invited me at the annual domestic tourism conclave. Sharing cables with the above thought, in the recent years we have seen that tourism industry has grown in leaps and bounds. Complying to this growth aspect, Indian tourism industry is realizing its the potential of small destinations. The people are changing mindsets and they are are keen to explore the niche destinations. While following the similar lines, we in the past already realized the potential of domestic tourism. When others OTA’s were busy in alluring foreign tourists, we being so contemplative were engaged in harnessing the potential of budget, and lesser known destinations. We at IHR with our main focus on destinations like Mantralayam, Yelagiri, Yercaud, Vishakhapatnam and many more alike, took the initiative of selling these destinations which further helped to plunge the growth momentum in Southern India domestic tour circuit.
It’s really good to know that the state governments are now directing their focus towards emerging destinations. Saputara which few years back was not known to many people is now getting its recognition in the form of emerging monsoon destination. In respect to Saputara, We already started promoting this destination after few years of our inception. Similarly there are many other destinations like Suryalanka beach in Andhra Pradesh, Bhavani Island in Andhra Pradesh, St Mary’s Island in Karnataka, Marvanthe in Karnataka and hill stations of Maharashtra which have already been the part of our special travel menu.
Apart from our efforts of diverting the kindered interests to budget or lesser known destinations, there are still many areas in the Indian travel radius where we need to make revolutionary changes. The inefficiency of hospitality industry at many sections have led to disappointments in the guild of domestic travellers. If we will put lime light on our negative areas, we will see domestic travel circuits drifting apart from the internationally proclaimed parameters. In the line, I feel that today hygiene and homogeneity are also the two factors responsible for down grading the standards of travel sector . The cleanliness, set hospitality standards and basic facilities are still lacking at some hotels in India. The hotels commit to provide the best accommodations but at last customers don’t get the complete value for money. The online websites do provide lists of luxury hotels but budget stay options are quiet less in number. Talking about transport services, at buses and rail coaches which are the exclusive means of commuting are still not given any attention. The overall consequences of this huge gap are faced by the travellers every day. We can also call it as the trust gap in the domestic travel circuit which is constantly widening and can only be cemented by taking help of technology, best strategy and making improvements in the tourism policies.
We in this situation have taken the help of technology and strategy, combining which the travellers can easily scan through the required details. The social media platforms and Internet generated user based content offering only the factual information has also been the most effective tools in providing real information on the domestic travel circuits. By posting articles, developing unique tailor made itineraries, travel guide, blogs and posting information on social media sites, we have instilled our best efforts to create awareness about the travel destinations. Technology is the need and in this direction we have been doing campaigns to promote small, traditional and budget destinations.
The online assistance provided by us has proved highly instrumental in answering all queries instantly. While you read the details, you can instantly ask for customized packages. Hence technology has surely helped us overcome this trust gap and maintain transparency.
As the result of constant travel revolution, the travelers have commenced thinking out of the box and are breaking the monotony of old travel practices. The new model of celebrating holidays during special events as well weekends is fast catching the interests of many aspiring travellers. In this context we have started looking forward for 15th August travel tours. At IHR we started getting inquiry calls for the same since April 1, 2011. In boarder terms, this is the result of constant promotional and informative context because of which awareness about this kind of holiday trend is spreading quickly. For future we are planning to introduce some more special weekend tour packages which will boast the domestic tourism and give the travellers complete sense of value for the money.
We certainly believe that there are different types of travellers for some the best accommodations and luxury remains prior need but for pilgrims, the element of faith is so strong that they don’t care about the quality of stay options. Pilgrimage is driving the wave of tourism and in the coming years it will grow by many times. Shirdi, Mallikarjuna, Puttaparthi, Katra-Viashno Devi, Amrnath, Balaji-Tirupati, Rameswaram are the pilgrimage destinations where the pilgrims can get the unmatchable stay options. We at IHR hosting the list of thousand of budget accommodations provide the best spate of stay options in and around the above mentioned destinations. Our list of all types of hotels have benefited the tourists and has also generated revenue for private as well government hotels which in past were devoid of any tourist presence.
Large percentage of people travelling to different destinations are visiting family relatives. The other types of travellers are the middle income group travellers and upper income group travellers who think of planning a tour for an entertainment and adventure purpose. In this sense, bringing all the strata of society under one umbrella, Self driven tourism--tour on vehicles has created extreme impetus amongst the travellers of all ages. The people of all ages love to mellow and discover the world from their own way. Taking deep insight over the driving tourism trend, we have developed special tours packages capturing the pulse of aspiring revellers. In fact, the tour by vehicles have now become the new trend setter in boosting domestic tourism and is set to tempt more adventurers in the coming years.
Conclusively, we have covered every staunch aspect of domestic tourism in different lengths and breadths. Our efforts to think from the traveller end have compelled us to develop such tour services that could provide best touring experience as well as propel domestic tourism to new heights. Reckoning innovation as the main soul, We in the span of 4 years have implemented many idea s into action and those ideas have attributed us to gain vast recognition in the domestic travel industry.
By
Mr. Ankit Rastogi
Co-Founder & Business Head
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