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InteractionKuoni Group’s Competitive Strategy & VisionRetaining A Place of PrideIn Travel & Tourism Sector15In the fast growing traveland tourism industry,India’s Kuoni Travel Grouphas carved a niche foritself. The Indian venture, a100 percent subsidiary ofthe globally reputed KuoniTravel Holding,Switzerland, has manyinnovative schemes to offerin order to maintain itspride of place in the highlycompetitive travel andtourism industry. ZubinKarkaria, Chief ExecutiveOfficer & ManagingDirector, India & South Asiashares the Kuoni Group’sstrategy and vision in aninterview to Indo-SwissBusiness. Excerpts.Please give a brief overview of the world travel andtourism industry for the just concluded year, 2007.What are the prospects for both Outbound andInbound travel businesses for the year that has juststarted? Views on 2007.The Indian outbound has undergone a very promising phase ascompared to other international markets. A buoyant economy andgrowing purchasing power coupled with high awareness generationhas lead to new customers entering the category of holidays. A holidayis becoming one of the options to beat the stress of a rapidly globalizingeconomy. In addition to leisure holidays, DINKS, Visiting Friends andRelatives (VFR) travelers are also opting for niche products likeadventure tours, luxury travel, exotic honeymoon packages, cruisesand the Meetings Incentives Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE)segment is also coming up as a potential market for Indian tourists.Outbound travel for conventions, incentives and business has alsoseen a rise.Prospects of growth (Outbound & Inbound) 2008.OutboundThe travel industry is growing rapidly and thus contributing to anexpanding and evolving customer base. In future we can see twosegments that would be emerging namely the customer segment andthe product segment. In the case of the customer segment we will havevarious categories like the youth, senior citizens, students etc. In termsof products we will have packages like adventure sports, medicaltourism, premium holiday packages that would be preferred bytravelers. Specialized tours will also gain importance and one will seemore and more travellers opting for health holidays, spiritual getaways,adventure, wildlife vacations amongst others. Today their numbersmight not be so substantial, but these specialized and short haulholidays will drive the Indian tourism industry in the future.Recognition of shifting realities and the ability to fine-tune operations tohone in on the emerging opportunities are of critical importance. Thussuccess will be found through innovation and customer focus. Theindustry must become accustomed to creating products for nichemarkets and at the same time cater to the populace through focus onall markets separately.The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) estimates a 4.5 per centper annum increase in the total amount of travel and tourism economicINDO-SWISS BUSINESS + JAN-FEB 2008