Europamundo, a large Asian travel company, wants to target budget and middle-class travelers from India. They see India as a promising English-speaking market with many budget travelers who want to see Europe. Europamundo offers tours to Spain and plans to expand to other English-speaking countries. To increase awareness in India, Europamundo is conducting weekly training sessions for local tour operators and travel agents. They also plan webinars and participation in travel fairs. Europamundo emphasizes flexibility, with guaranteed departures and prices and flexibility to change tour itineraries. They are looking to expand beyond major cities to tier 2 and 3 markets across India.

1. Travel Agents & Tour Operators Itravel trends today  April 201626
Europamundo eyes middle
class traveller from India
E
uropamundo, one of Asia’s largest
Travel and Tourism Companies, eyes
to target the budget and middle class
travellers segment from India. The company
has a significant presence in most of the
Spanish speaking markets. Presently, the
company is planning to spread its wings
across the English speaking markets.
Speaking about the Indian market, Roxan
Patel, Commercial Manager-West & South,
Europamundo Vacaciones said, “As we are
now entering the English speaking market
after conducting tours to the Spanish
speaking market over the last 20 years, we
find India as the most promising English
speaking market with the mass of budget
middle class travellers since we offer the best
price/quality ratio. The decision to enter the
Indian market is based on the fact that this
market is growing at a healthy rate of 10-12
per cent and the middle income group has a
desire to see Europe.”
To enhance its presence amongst the
B2B travel trade segment, Europamundo
is organising various trade engagement
activitiesliketrainingsessionsandworkshops.
“2016 is our first year for the English speaking
market including India. We organise weekly
training programmes at the designated
distributor’s office in India so as to spread
awareness about our products to the local
tour operators. We will also ensure that all
tour operator offices within designated area
is well trained with Europamundo products,
concepts and online user friendly booking
system. To further reach to the masses, we
will conduct regular webinars as follow up
training for tour operators and travel agents.
Finally, we will participate in various travel
fairs together with tour operators and also
participate in promotional activities executed
by the tour operators.”
Talking about the USP of the company, Patel
informed that flexibility is Europamundo’s
major USP. “We never cancel any of our fixed
departures, all our departures stating from
April 2016/March 2017 are guaranteed. We
are not a traditional coach tour company;
we have tools that give the client a lot of
flexibility. We will provide the Indian market
with guaranteed
year round
departures along
with guaranteed
prices. And flexibility
which we provide
will be in terms of
flexibility to be able
to start at any point
on the trip; flexibility
to be able to book just a part of a tour; and
flexibility to break from the tour and return
later to continue the programme. We also
have a very user friendly online booking
system,” Patel added.
Apart from targeting major Indian cities,
Europamundo is also looking at Tier II & III
cities. Patel said, “The major source markets
for us are markets with budget medium class
travellers. We are also aggressively looking at
the Tier II and III markets. We have covered
most of the smaller cities such as Pune,
Nagpur, Nasik, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Cochin,
Coimbatore, Chandigarh, and Ludhiana.
- Akshay Kumar
Bonton eyes
MSME business
LATAM wins IF
Design Award
In its quest to expand its presence
across strategic verticals, the Bonton
Group has gainfully entered into MICE
segment. According to Syed A Asim,
Executive Director, BontonGroup, the
dedicated MICE divisions started in
2015 has created brilliant results.
“The company was started in 2009
and we met the test of time with our
determination to create a brand that
leverages state-of-the-art technology,
innovated consistently and stayed
focused on its B2B partners and end-
consumers,” said Syed.
“We started in a small way from
Ahmedabad, promoting Dubai from
India. Today, with 200 strong staff, we
are one of the most preferred DMCs
in the UAE region. Segments wise, we
have built strong recognition in B2B,
corporate, domestic, inbound, and now
MICE. Our dedicated MICE vertical
has already succeeded in a short span of
time to win incentive groups to Middle
East region. There is a great demand for
activity and experiential oriented MICE
business in this region,” added Syed.
The corporate segment that Bonton has
strategically chosen to grow its MICE
footing is the MSME segment. “India is
full of surprises spread across its non-
metro cities, where there are small cash
rich entities wanting to send its staff,
dealers, or other business associates on
incentive journeys. Also, they need to
organise their corporate events. We see
this has a major growth opportunity,”
explained Syed.
Further, another spin-off from earlier
struggle that Bonton Group is reaping
impressive returns is the in-house
technology. “We realised the need
to develop proprietary technology
from the very early days. As a result,
BontonInfotech had to be nurtured
alongside. Today, Our BQM, or the
Bonton Quotation Model has over 4000
travel partners. It provides an opportunity
for any of the trade partners to make use
of our global foot print,” said Syed.
- Vivek Sethi
The new brand LATAM, which will be
adopted gradually by LAN, TAM and
their affiliates, has received international
recognition. The agency Interbrand,
which developed the project, won the IF
Design Award 2016 in the “New Brand
Identity” category for designing the
LATAM brand.
Jerome Cadier, Marketing VP, LATAM
said, “We’re very pleased to have
won the IF Design Award for our new
brand identity, which reaffirms our
commitment and joint efforts with
Interbrand to give life to LATAM. This
is a long process that is not over yet.
We’re building the identity of a company
that was born and raised throughout
various Latin American countries and
aims to offer not only the best network
of destinations, but also the best travel
experience for our passengers.”
The creation of LATAM, the new
brand of LAN and TAM, is based on a
comprehensive study conducted in over
ten countries and represents a historical
feat in the aviation industry, since is the
first airline group to merge itself into a
single brand.
The company is targeting tier II & III cities by organising training workshops
Roxan Patel
India Expo Centre & Mart, Delhi NCR
Integrated Multipurpose Venue for
Exhibitions, Conferences & Events
For more details contact: secretariat@ieia.in, Tel: +91 11 41045481, +91 7428392206
th
Early bird discounts applicable till 9 April 2016
Get yourself and your colleagues registered for the Must- Attend event of the exhibition industry.
Seminar Booklet Partner
Platinum Sponsor Gold Sponsor Silver Sponsor
Registration Counter Sponsor Mementos Sponsor Venue Branding Sponsor
Hotel PartnerMedia Partner