NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

Flavour of the season

On the way home from a recent visit to Malaysia, I was struck by the sheer power of destination marketing. What I had experienced in that country in less than a week was just how forceful a combined effort could be in luring tourists to a country, city or wherever. Right from the time you touch down at the airport, the ambience, the entire tourism mechanism seems to kick into action and compel you to stay - nothing spectacular about the place, just the sheer result of a cohesive marketing and promotion effort. An ideal MICE destination, perhaps more suited to affordable incentives in the Indian context, Malaysia is a success story of tourism marketing where every service provider has played a crucial role. The hotels and airlines in particular have combined to float unbelievably affordable packages at rates that even an average middle-income Indian can scarcely refuse. This combination of tourism services is a secret that most countries seem to be discovering very rapidly, both for domestic and international travellers. While a hotel-airline joint effort was erstwhile restricted mainly to travel cards which accumulated points to be later redeemed as mileage or room nights, the alliances of today have moved much further where a combination of hotels and airlines could offer the business or leisure traveller deals that no travel agent or tour operator could better. The recent Indian Airlines-Taj alliance was one such example in the domestic market, while Emirates offered complimentary room nights for travel to the Far East via Dubai at the Shangri-La group of hotels exclusively for the Indian market. The success of these schemes can be gauged from the fact that all domestic airlines and most of the front-line international carriers operating in India are today wooing travellers with these joint promotions, especially in the off-season. The cover story in this issue of feBusiness Traveller delves into some of the lucrative hotel-airline deals for the Indian market which is sure to encourage you to travel even more as we enter the traditional Indian festive season. And just to keep you in the festive spirit, we have a special feature on corporate gifting and pub-hopping in Bangalore... Cheers!

Sheldon Santwan
EDITOR, feBusiness Traveller
Sheldon can be reached at
editor@businesstravellerindia.com