It's the travel bug again, and much of the enthusiasm is moving to India's Tier-2 cities, going by the furious bookings being made in places like Jaipur, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Indore, Bhopal, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Coimbatore and Guwahati.
Interestingly, for major Southeast Asian destinations such as Malaysia and Singapore, Tier-2 cities make up about 30-40 per cent of their total arrivals from India. Apart from these countries, Switzerland and the United Kingdom too confirm that about 25-30 per cent of their arrivals from India are from these cities.
It is no coincidence that over the last few years, travel organisations have started promotional activities in these smaller cities. Singapore Tourism Board (STB), for example, runs ad campaigns in newspapers and on billboards.
"We also target key customer segments because resources are limited. In Tier-2 cities, we are targetting the first-timers and family segment. Apart from leisure, we are also expanding the business conference and education segments in these cities," says Kenneth Lim, area director, northern-eastern India, Bangladesh, Nepal, STB, which works with travel agents too.
Switzerland Tourism operates in these cities mostly through the travel trade. "We feel that smaller towns work more on word-of-mouth and experience," says Ritu Sharma, manager, India.
For this, they take regional media representatives for FAM trips as well as take agents and operators for workshops in Switzerland. The trade is also kept up-to-date through seminars and roadshows. With 15-20 per cent of its budget being spent on Tier-2 cities, Switzerland Tourism also runs joint promotions with local travel agents.
Malaysia, though, has a slightly different strategy. "We do tactical promotions which are package driven," says P Manoharan, director India, Malaysia Tourism, which also participates in consumer trade fairs in an attempt to lure the consumer directly. It also uses regional language advertising extensively (Tamil, Punjabi, Gujarati and Kannada, for example).
The VisitBritain effort, meanwhile, targets both the travel trade as well as end consumers simultaneously - to promote UK in Tier-2 markets. By organising visa workshops, it educates travel agents on the ease of getting a British visa.
"To reach consumers," says Poornima Rai, manager media, online and promotions, "we use British Council's network in Tier-2 cities for promotions and quizzes, and also take part in roadshows and consumer tradefairs." With such vigorous wooing, expect the most unreachable of travellers to get bug-bitten.
