Experience-led Luxury Tours For HNIs In India

Insight Vacations and Signature Tours by Creative Travel has introduced Luxury Gold Worldwide itineraries for (high net worth individuals) HNIs in India. John Boulding, CEO of Insight Vacations speaks to BW Businessworld on the collaboration with Rajeev Kohli, Joint Managing Director of Signature Tours, the new luxury product, and its expansion plans.

The emergence of the ‘experience-hungry’ traveller is driving the premium outbound travel sector in India. The Indian market, interestingly, is fast outpacing even its BRICS peers in premium travel segment, spurred by a genuine desire to experience true, bespoke luxury travel. To cater to this growing luxury travel market in India, which is expected to grow at CAGR of 12.8 per cent in the next decade, Delhi-based Creative Travel has collaborated with Insight Vacations to provide some of the finest travel experiences. The collaboration offers ‘Luxury Gold Journeys’ an extraordinary value for price luxury travel segment for Indians who want to travel in elegance and style while savouring authentic, local-led experiences. The first-of-its kind in the Indian market, Luxury Gold features 38 expertly crafted escorted journeys delivering five-star elegance and incredible VIP experiences across Europe, North and South America, India, Southeast Asia and Australasia.

Explaining the luxury product, Kohli said, “What we curate is a real-time, experience-led, truly inspired journey for the traveller. For a long time, outbound travel has been a rather unsophisticated experience for Indians. With the expertise of Signature Tours and the signature experiences by Insight Vacations, we are bringing in a premium quality, niche product that showcases our ethos and ensures an exclusive experience for the guest.”

Luxury Gold itineraries include heritage trails, epicurean dining, a fascinating meet and greet with the choreographer at La Nouvelle Eve, and more.

Excerpts from the interview:

Tell us about the collaboration between Insight Vacations and Creative Travel?
Creative Travel is our core distributor in India handling our inbound programme. We have together entered into a partnership agreement. We have changed the way we operate our products today. We have been selling in India for 30 years and carrying thousands of Indians to Europe. Being a premium operator, this product has been designed keeping in mind the affordable pricing for Indian traveller.

What is luxury travel and how has it evolved?
Luxury travel features intimate experiences, personalised services, gourmet meals, and beautiful surroundings. It has now evolved due to consumer aspiration. With higher disposable income, comfort is higher on one’s list of needs, and many of our past guests are discerning customers who want the “best value for their money”, unforgettable travel moments, and the opportunity to meet interesting people while on vacation.

What are your plans for 2017?
Apart from this value added product, the itinerary will add more destinations like Iceland, North America, Black Sea, South America, Peru, Costa Rica, Indian subcontinent, Indo-China Australia and New Zealand.

What are the top destinations for 2017?
Turkey was and will be big. Other places like Egypt, Scandinavia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Iberia, Portugal and Spain will get good footfall due to their connectivity, culture and cuisine.

What are your expectations from India?
Our numbers are not huge from India but they are growing. 2016 saw a dip in arrivals but 2017 looks good. From our perspective, since we launched the programme six years ago, it’s grown to now that each year moves upwards of 20 percent growth every year.

Has the desire for premium holidays dipped, given the slowing economy?
Luxury travel has made a stunning comeback from the downturn it suffered in the past few years. Our premium products are not so expensive. We offer luxury at a great deal of about 500 USD per day. Guests can enjoy a variety of smaller group touring styles guaranteed to suit all preferences and fulfil travel dreams.