According to a report published by Research Dive, the global luxury travel market is expected to garner a revenue of $1,369,103.8 million by 2028, growing exponentially at a CAGR of 8.8% during the forecast period 2021-2028. Hemant Mediratta, Founder of One Rep Global represents a number of famed luxury hospitality brands in India. In an interaction with Travel Trade Insider, he highlighted the strong growth the Indian luxury travel market is witnessing and trends he expects in the representation business.
Q. With India allowing scheduled international flights, how is the outbound luxury market recovering?
A. The luxury market was the saving grace when it came to leisure travel during the pandemic. Whether it is the rising number of unicorns created in the last year in India or the emergence of rising number of new billionaires, whether it’s the rise in consumption of luxury goods across tier 2 and 3 cities or the wealth being invested in the stock market, these are all indicators that suggest that the luxury market will expand further.
Despite the air fares being higher than usual, the load factors are fairly high. In fact, a lot of popular international locations are seeing challenge in easy availability of hotel accommodation. Our international clients are keen and willing to invest in the Indian market as they also see the demand and numbers on the rise from the high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) and ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs).
Q. What are the trends that you expect in the Indian outbound luxury travel market in the days to come?
A. The pandemic has changed the way travellers are thinking. They are seeking more meaning in their travel. From being destination hoppers where they would earlier tick boxes of covering 5 countries in 5 days, they are now taking it slow. A longer length of stay at each destination, travel with a purpose and more immersive travel that is experiential are gaining prominence.
Travellers preferring off beat destinations as part of their itinerary and staying at private villas is not uncommon any longer. Multi-generational holidays were always popular with Indians and it’s gaining further traction now.
Q. Which are the new destinations that are getting popular among Indian outbound luxury travellers?
A. With air fares being high and covid still somewhere at the back of our minds, travellers are preferring short lead bookings to short and mid-haul destinations. Travelling to Dubai, Maldives and Bali is a given. Certain European cities like London, Paris and Amsterdam have always been iconic destinations and continue to attract Indian travellers. Smaller destinations that are making an impact and generating interest include Ras Al Khaimah, St. Moritz and Ryokans outside Tokyo to name a few.
Q. Kindly throw some light on how your company is different from other representation businesses?
A. One Rep Global is a company of hoteliers, by hoteliers for hoteliers. We are probably one of the very few companies that are focused only on luxury and ultra-luxury hotels in the representation business. We want to bring the best of the best luxury hospitality brands to Indian consumers and in our own way tell the world that there is a strong of Indian consumers that are discerning, evolved travellers and value service.
Some of our accreditations include Traveller Made (now rebranded as Serandipians) – the only representation company in this part of the world to have this, XO Private, and Connections to name a few. We are a strategic partner with Forbes Verified as well.
We have a strong advisory board of some very respected travel advisors who constantly guide and mentor us. What differentiates us from others is our people and the culture of the organisation. We are an organisation that empowers to perform and encourages meritocracy. Our people philosophy has three parts – hire right, train extensively and empower to perform.
We have doubled in size throughout covid times and continue to grow at a steady pace. Our clients include luxury and ultra-luxury independent boutique hotels, luxury private villas, private jets and cruises to name a few. One Rep Global has cemented its mark amongst the HNWIs and UHNWIs segment.
Q. Considering how the pandemic has changed the tourism scenario globally, what future do you envisage for the destination or product representation business?
A. The market will soon see a shake up and only good quality, well-resourced and funded companies will be able to excel in this business. Some individual entrepreneurs and ‘solopreneurs’ have done well in the past but it will become increasingly difficult to hold on to accounts and service them effectively.
Sales is essentially about the reach and distribution and strength of relationships. For this you need an infrastructure of offices, talent and processes/technology to support the sales team’s efforts. India being such a huge country today has over 160,000 registered agents. The question is how do you first find out who all are relevant to your business and how do you reach out to them.
For One Rep Global with offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and a team of 14 plus enthusiastic members we cover 25 cities. There are more than 100 cities in India that have the potential for luxury hospitality products. We are constantly improving and expanding our infrastructure to enhance our reach.
As bigger teams bring in their relationships and contacts, the organisation grows from strength to strength. Like any other business today, scale has its advantages especially in sales and the industry will witness some key players emerging as large players. At One Rep Global, we keep our customers at the centre of our decisions and our over-arching goal is to provide our clients a sales and marketing eco system that is best in the world. For this, we have always followed a collaborative approach and invite individual entrepreneurs to join hands with us to together achieve success.
As India emerges among the top travel markets of the future, we see a lot of international brands making an investment in the country and a representation company with distribution, connections and expertise is always a good first step to assessing the market. We see this business segment growing well for India.