The Official Voice Of Etaa

Opening New Avenues For The Sub-Agent Segment

Bombay Travels To Develop Education Tourism Niche

China, Dubai Earmarked For Industrial Visits, Exchange Programmes

Bhisham Mansukhani - Mumbai

Karl Dantas

Underlining the importance of diversifying one's busi-ness model, Bombay Travels has tapped the education tourism niche. It will collaborate with management schools across Indian cities to integrate field trips into the curriculum, which combine both industrial visits and tourism.

Emphasising the scope for growth of this relatively nascent niche, Karl Dantas, managing director of Bombay Travels, said, "The objective is to catch them young. Students of business management have an affinity to travel, albeit their perspective is different from that of the conventional tourist."

Dantas had initially targeted Chinese universities and companies as well as organisations in Dubai and now plans to tap Switzerland and Korea. "Most business schools include field trips but these are likely to be domestic. Destinations abroad, which are currently relevant to the world economy, are a much more exciting prospect. It also helps promote relations between countries on a commercial level. Globally, this is a ready case study. The idea is to position field trips for business as well as learning," Dantas said. Bombay Travels is currently organising field trips for Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) for its family business management course. These trips are expected to form part of their objective to look to diversification, restructuring, business development.

“Itineraries and appointments in the course of the trip are fixed according to individual student profiles and certain industry verticals have been shortlisted. In the next two to three years, we are also looking at the possibility of exchange programmes at faculty and student levels. Beijing and Shanghai and some of the other Chinese cities are on the radar for these programmes," he said.

Apart from NMIMS, Dantas will also approach more management schools. "There are challenges as many of the organisation on the itinerary were initially reluctant. They saw the visits as a bit of distraction. The attitude of the college faculty is also critical. They need to be keen to push it through and see how their students can make the most of it," he said.

Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) has been instrumental in assisting Dantas with arranging site visits and orientation for students with regard to the destination. According to DTCM country manager - India, Carl Vaz, "This certainly is a new segment and creates an opportunity not just in the commercial sense but also goes some way towards building bridges." Vaz added that DTCM is working with many tour operators to develop similar niches. "We are looking beyond the traditional marketing of destinations and activities and developing niche segments like golf, water sports, high-end products for the MICE segment, catamaran, charters, yatch, etc," he said.