Not so long ago, industry experts had predicted that travel agencies would no longer have a meaningful role in tourism when customers make their own bookings online. However, the reality is, we still love our travel agents.

Present day click-and-mortar travel companies capitalise on a blend of two business models. This means flexibility, convenience and myriad alternatives for end users. Short-stay travel offerings, in particular, are powering the Indian tourism industry today. The origins of some of these click-and-mortar operations can be traced back to entrepreneurial minds thinking different. But for any venture to survive in our modern economic environments and remain competitive, its premise has to be based on some key differentiators.

Won’t give in, will adapt

Travel Tours began as an entrepreneurial venture. Still retaining its ‘agency’ character, it serves B2B clients as a one-stop-shop for all business travel requirements. The group decided to move into non-air offerings, opening up destinations that people may not have considered as holiday spots earlier.

Its ‘Smart Tool’, an online application, allows clients to make bookings themselves and streamline costs for employee off-sites or meetings. Travel Tours concentrates on short-stay options for groups attending conferences and exhibitions.

Everyone now knows this service segment as MICE, i.e., Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions.

Managing Director Shravan Gupta comments on the secret to their survival, ‘We were quick to transform ourselves from an entity that received commissioned cuts from airlines to one that directly focused and served travellers. We’ve capitalised on opportunities in the B2B sector, through short-stay options and luxury holidays, while continuing to serve individual requirements.

But segments like ‘special interest’ – namely study trips, factory visits, or visits to coffee plantations – and MICE are very nascent; so much opportunity there’.

Choice with customers

When travel Web sites moved to the ‘price comparison’ model, Kayak, Skyscanner, Travel Supermarket grew in popularity across the world while TripAdvisor, Yatra, MakeMyTrip and Expedia were favoured by Asians and specifically Indians. Holiday IQ began showcasing some of the best tourist spots across the country, selling short-stay escapes based on themes ranging from ‘romantic’, ‘offbeat’, ‘city’, ‘adventure’ to even ‘heritage’, ‘religious’ and ‘relaxed’ for singles, couples, families or groups with options for budget, luxury and ‘maharaja’ holidays. However, since 2011, one company has topped the search results for holiday comparison websites.

Two entrepreneurs in South India joined hands to turn the concept of a ‘holiday’ on its head. They began offering pre-checked short-stay options. Their outfit, Polama, originally a comparison service, remodelled itself into a short-stay holiday vendor with a unique edge. Polama offers the added guarantee of hygiene, convenience and overall quality of boutique hotels it has tied up with.

With the promise of accommodation even up to five days before the date of travel and the advantages of a membership programme, Polama is set to give time-share merchants a run for their money. Polama’s Sure Stay membership deal is much like your time-share programme, except, it is also nothing like it.

Novelty of thought

Remember how we all aspired for that holiday condominium? Even if it meant locking up so much capital for a longer duration and eventually never finding the time to benefit from the programme! With Polama, the choice is between 200 and 300 quality short-stay alternatives, all of them pre-checked.

Says M.D. Ramaswami, Co-founder and Managing Director, on what sets Polama apart, ‘Our membership programme was designed to give customers certainty on availability, quality and reasonable prices. We’re not locking them into a 25-year commitment. You can opt for a membership plan that is as short as two years and then renew it. Customers also benefit from discounts on other holiday components or services’.

Polama’s Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Dilip Panicker ensures the company’s technology set-up, including its call centre facilities, back the business in every way that matters.

He says, “We want to keep the user experience consistent and simple. Show what the user wants as quickly and easily as possible and learn from what the users are currently doing on our site.”

A future’s unfurling

With entrepreneurs re-inventing the concept of a ‘break’ or a ‘vacation’, the time seems ripe for growth in the short-stay holiday sector.

In early January, the US Travel Association reported 81,000 jobs created in 2012 by the American travel industry. Previously, in mid-2010, a study conducted by Assocham forecasted the Indian travel and tourism sector would employ more than 40 million people over the course of about 10 years.

Going by those calculations, forecasts were that India would soon be one of the top employers in the world.

While no specific figures or studies yet display how short-stay travel and tourism would drive the Indian economy, D.S. Rawat, Secretary General of Assocham, says, “The expectation is that the short-stay tourism segment will grow by roughly 30-40 per cent over the next five years. Even if comprehensive reports have not been published on this yet, the sector has already achieved growth of 15 per cent (CAGR) in India.”

Bottom-line: Start-ups are transforming the very idea of a holiday. Consider the high taxes on aviation fuel alone and expensive short-haul flights. Do alternative travel options, explorations of off-beat destinations and that quick weekend get-away now look attractive?

SPOTLIGHT

www.polama.com: A specialised venture focused on short-stay holidays

They were regular office-goers who loved travel. One day, M.D. Ramaswami and Dilip Panicker decided to get together and kick-start ‘a genuine work of love’. All they knew was that it had to be in the holiday space. While disinclined to sharing hard numbers at this point in time, they see Polama making significant headway in the alternate travel space over the next five years. Currently, Polama caters to clients from Bangalore and other metros in southern India.

On short stay holiday trends in 5–10 years

Increase in purchasing power; improvement of domestic infrastructure like four and six-lane highways connecting cities to resorts on the outskirts of metros; increasing stress in workplace; and aggressive promotions by tour operators, tourism boards and airlines have contributed to many travellers opting for frequent short stay breaks. In the future, increase in flight connectivity - both domestic and international - and simplified visa regimes to neighbouring countries will act as a catalyst to the growth of the short-stay holiday segment.

Karan Anand,

Head - Relationships, Cox & Kings

Internal research at Thomas Cook India has revealed that as against the one annual vacation, the evolving Indian traveller has made that quantum leap towards multiple short trips both domestic and international - in addition to the family summer vacation. Another fillip to the short stay tourism segment is the trend towards “experiential holidays” over the traditional multicity whirlwind tour of 15 days or more - so be it a weekend break, spa-wellness refresher or short haul overseas getaway, short stay tourism is here to stay!

Madhav Pai, Director – Leisure Travel (Outbound), Thomas Cook

(The author is a marketing communications consultant)

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