IRCTC spreads its wings, offers overseas tour packages

Buoyed by the response to its first overseas package, Indian Rail Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is planning a Mumbai-Dubai tourism package in September. It has also started working out tour packages to other destinations in south-east Asia and Europe during Diwali vacations.

IRCTC’s first overseas package “Dazzling Dubai” from Bhopal, priced at Rs 44,270 per person, will begin on August 21. The five days/ six nights package includes sight-seeing, accommodation, dinner, breakfast, AC-II tier journey from Bhopal to Mumbai and back to Bhopal and air travel by Jet Airways.

Rahul Himalian, additional general manager, western zone (tourism), IRCTC, said, “The three nights/four days Karizmatic Dubai package will be open for 42 tourists from Mumbai in September. The tariff is yet to be finalized but it will be approximately Rs 37,000 per person. The tour may commence on September 27.”

“The Karizmatic Dubai package will include economy class travel by Jet Airways and sight-seeing. The sight-seeing, arranged in AC coaches with push-back seats, includes Dubai city tour, desert safari with barbeque dinner and belly dancing show, dhow cruise with exclusive diner and a visit to Mall of Emirates. Tourists will be taken to the snow park and Burj Khalifa-world’s tallest building. They will have to pay the entrance fees in case they want to visit the two places,” said Himalian.

He further said, “Being a public sector, our aim is not profiteering. Unlike private tour operators, who compromise on quality to maximize profit, our package is crafted to cover all major attractions of Dubai. Tourists can enjoy the trip at leisure and in comfort.”

IRCTC is yet to finalize accommodation for tourists in Dubai. Himalian said, “We will try to provide accommodation in Fortune Grand Apartment or some other hotel of similar class. The package also includes three breakfasts and dinners.”

IRCTC is likely to roll out overseas packages for Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and destinations in Europe, he said.

After being divested of catering responsibility in railways, the IRCTC has been focusing on promoting tourism packages, which include city tours, domestic packages-including holiday destinations, besides religious trips to Tirupati, Kanyakumari, Haridwar, etc. It has also ventured into online booking of airline tickets., besides setting up catering-related units in areas not connected with railways.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-08-13/mumbai/33182127_1_tour-packages-irctc-dubai-package

Now train bookings become easier

With air traffic and inward tourist numbers declining, travel portals in India have decided to tap the mass market.

Keeping in mind that the number of people who travel by train every day is equal to those travelling by plane in an entire year, travel portals such as ezeego1.com, yatra.com and cleartrip.com, have tied up with e-commerce web site http://www.irctc.co.in to offer e-bookings of train tickets to their customers. As of now, if you wanted to book your train tickets electronically, you had to log on to the web site of the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a public sector undertaking under the ministry of railways or book them over the phone or through an agent.

Rakesh Tandon, managing director of IRCTC said, “We will definitely lose our market share, but we are happy that we will succeed in expanding the online booking channels to more cities via the tie-ups with these travel portals (which also sell tour packages, hotel bookings, car rentals and so on).”

Simultaneously, IRCTC is also trying to enhance its brick and mortar reach. It wants more agents to enroll themselves so that it can beef up its market share in the face of competition.

“Over 60,000-70,000 bookings are done per day through our web site and the rest are through other channels. At present, 30 per cent of our revenue comes from travel agents and travel portals,” said Sanjay Agrawal, general manager — operations, IRCTC. The organisation facilitated Rs 594.97 crore worth of railways ticket bookings in February 2009, alone.

Under the present agreement, ezeego1.com and yatra.com will be charging Rs 10 for second-class sleeper and Rs 20 for air-conditioned ticket, over and above the charges of Rs 10 service charge for second class sleeper and Rs 20 for higher class by IRCTC.

Ezeego1.com hopes to see its rail ticket volumes come up to 2,000 to 2,500 tickets per day on all-India basis, initially. Neelu Singh, chief operating officer of Ezeego1.com said, “We will be sending e-mails and undertake below the line marketing activities to educate customers that they can now book rail tickets online through us. We may also look at some advertising campaign in the future.”
Yatra.com, which is eyeing to book 15,000-16,000 tickets per day through IRCTC, is planning to bring down the booking time to three minutes from around 5-6 minutes for its customers.

“Our users can view all available trains, timings, fares and seat availability for five days on a single screen, in addition to being able to book and cancel online. Tatkal seats and senior citizen quotas too are available for booking,” Mudit Khosla, business head, railways of Yatra.com told Financial Chronicle.

http://www.mydigitalfc.com/companies/now-train-bookings-become-easier-976