Of special interest

A shift from the ordinary is always welcome, especially when the business environment calls for such a diversion. Andrea Lopez looks at the growing popularity of special interest tours, whether they be sports packages or wine tours

The regular can quickly become the mundane and it takes creativity and ingenuity to revive flagging interests. In the same vein, travel packages, though might linger longer than usual on popular charts, will later than sooner begin to lose currency, which may gain value only with a radically exotic mix or a more focused approach.

This may be the reason why the market has been for some time seeing travel agents getting into a linear mindset and offering niche products - developing an identity for themselves that will associate them with specific packages like wine, adventure or holy tours. Indian tour operators are finally experimenting with niche tours.

Art attack

A recent report released by the Kuoni Group has validated that more Indians are venturing into selective areas of tourism. While holy tours and pilgrimage travel to places like Jerusalem, Bethlehem and certain regions of France have been popular among well-heeled luxury travellers for some time now, art tours are beginning to draw colour.

Vasuki Sundaram of Wings Travel & Tours for instance specialises in art tours, wherein itineraries of locations of aesthetic appeal are designed exclusively for artists and musicians. The company has been in the business for six years now. "We have artists from all over India, France and Bangladesh participating in the tours," she reveals.

In fact, new destinations like Jordan, Israel, Morocco, Turkey and even Mexico have found themselves on the list of potential destinations for art lovers. The company is now working on starting tours to five new destinations completely unexplored by the Indian market.

From the cellar

Wine tourism is among the newest emerging industries, and if tapped in the right direction, has excellent potential for growth - not only for indigenous grape growers but the domestic wine industry as well. However, while wine trails and wine tasting tours have been very popular abroad, the same response and interest levels are yet to be seen in India.

But the string of vineyards developing in places like Nashik in Maharashtra and the subsequent development of resorts around these vineyards is a testament to the fact that niche tourism, once elitist, is gaining popularity. Tiger Hill Resorts in Nashik, owned by wine major Chateau Indage, is a good example and has reportedly received good response from the incentive and the FIT segments.

Mamta Shah of another agent, Sanskruti Travels that conducts one to three day wine tours for travellers, says, "The concept of wine tours is not new per se but Indians are only beginning to explore the culture of wine-drinking, with a little help from the wineries in Nashik that have enabled the middle class to sample this product too."

With over 30 wine parks spread across this region, Shah is of the opinion that Nashik could be India's very own Napa Valley. "We are very keen on promoting wine tours to Nashik this season and want to bring it to the middle class traveller," she says.

Sporting around

Estimated to be a multi-billion dollar industry, sports tourism accounts for nearly 25 per cent of tourism receipts in some countries. The market in India is still young but has great potential, especially when we talk about cricket, soccer, tennis and F1. Says Heena Akhtar, founder and COO of TravelPort, which specialises in sports tours, "Cricket remains one of the biggest generators of sports tourism, and 'once in four year' events like FIFA and the Olympics have great demand. A majority of clients showing interest in sports tourism come from the MICE segment (80 per cent) while FITs contribute roughly 20 per cent to the business.

Golf, skiing, white water rafting and other adventure sports, particularly in the northern reaches of the country can be the future of domestic sports tourism. While the latter may be seasonal, Akhtar is of the opinion that developing better golf courses will be good for the country's MICE segment. "The incentive market will make this segment boom," she feels.

Cutting Edge has been specialising in sports tourism since 2003 has seen a marked improvement in popular interests. Dimple Gandhi, the company's director, says that the concept of sport as a form of tourism began during the 1999 cricket World Cup. "Till then travelling for sporting events initially began as a hobby. The actual craze in India started during the 2003 Cricket World Cup held in South Africa that saw nearly 7,000 people from India."

However, Formula1, Rugby and Wimbledon tournaments have also been luring people since the past two years. South Africa and Bangkok are popular for their golf packages. "About 98 per cent of the market for sports tourism comes from the incentive segment. Domestically, the business hasn't been explored, but if taken seriously, hockey has a lot of potential," she offers.