Travel company Cox & Kings is set to roll out its education travel concept in India after it acquired UK-based education and activity travel group Holidaybreak in 2011. Despite the currency fluctuations, Peter Kerkar, Director of Cox & Kings, is bullish on Indian outbound travel growth.

When do you plan to roll out Holidaybreak concept in India?

We acquired Holidaybreak about 18 months ago, and we are market leaders in Europe in education travel, which focuses on school children and offers them out-of-school learning experiences.

We have physical assets with about 44 centres under management and 10,500 beds spread across the UK and other European countries. One reason why we made this acquisition was because we wanted to roll out this concept in India and Australia and other South Asian regions. We hope that by next financial year, our first centre will be up and running in India.

The concept will be identical to what we do in the UK. We expect to price it in the range of Rs 2,500 a night and do not want this to be elitist.

What is the potential of this concept in India and will there be any variation?

We will start with the Southern market, but the North will also be a huge market.

The only deviation will be that we will offer similar programmes for adult education, which will focus on team and leadership building experiences. We believe there is huge potential for this segment, which is currently fragmented and managed by small operators. We are looking at three regions to develop these centres — Mumbai, Pune and Gujarat, the Rishikesh region and the Delhi NCR-Jaipur region. The idea is to develop these centres within three hours of driving distance from the city.

Do you plan to acquire land to build these centres?

We will invest about Rs 300 crore to open five centres in the next five years. We will look at either leasing or building them ourselves.

How much revenue do you get through domestic and outbound travel, and how big is India for your business?

Nearly 60 per cent of revenue contribution for Cox & Kings India comes from outbound travel. Domestic travel contributes about 22 per cent and is growing fast, while business travel accounts for 9-10 per cent. The remainder comes from inbound travellers. Cox & Kings India accounts for approximately 30 per cent of our total revenues. India is the largest market for us, and as we roll out the education travel concept, we believe it will see faster growth. We also believe that the share of domestic travel will grow faster. As disposable income grows, people tend to take more short breaks. For instance, Kashmir saw phenomenal growth this summer.

How has rupee depreciation impacted the outbound segment?

The concerns are a bit exaggerated, since the number of people who actually buy packaged tours is minuscule compared with India’s population. People who are rich enough to travel abroad will not worry about currency fluctuations. We are bullish on the outbound market, which is expected to see double-digit growth for the next 10 years, as it still has a small base. We are expanding through franchisees and have them representing the company in nearly 80 cities.

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