UNIGLOBE TRAVEL AIMS 100% GROWTH IN INDIA BY 2020
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U. Gary Charlwood, Chairman and Founder, Uniglobe Travel International and Ritika Modi, Regional President, Uniglobe Travel South Asia, talk about the performance and future growth prospects for the company Uniglobe Travel, which is present in 60 countries in 6 continents with US$ 5 bn annualized sales, is bullish over the performance in the India market. The company recently organized its maiden ‘Chairman Circle’ conference in India. This was the 33rd Chairman’s Circle conference where members participate by invitation only. The 3 day meeting shared the latest trends, information and methods of doing business successfully among the participants. As many as 4 Indian agencies qualified for this year’s event.
What prompted you to organize this year’s Circle in India?
India market is brilliant. India, with a huge population and middle class, offers an enormous growth opportunity. Moreover, India is an exotic destination and we always organize our Circle at exotic locations. India was unanimous choice at last year’s Circle. Our second largest agency in terms of revenue in the world, Uniglobe Air Travel Bureau, is in India. South Asia, mainly India, generates over Rs 3,000 crores of annual sales revenue. We are at over 50 locations with 40 franchisee in South Asia.
Under the current scenario, how would you explain the emerging scenario in the travel business?
It is time of constant change. The speed and volume of information is ever changing. Today, to be in business one needs to be informed. We always provide a report on emerging trends to our members in order to prepare them to deal with changes and trends taking place in travel business globally. Everyone needs to be work online and offline in order to survive. The hybrid model is going to be the model of the future. Today, more than ever, you need to equip yourself to service the customer in a better way. Moreover, the enormous availability of information is confusing. We need to have the relevant information to achieve success. We always try to be on the top of the trends and we have answers about the trends. . We are a facilitator of travel for our clients.
What new elements you are bring into travel trade in terms of doing business?
We brought new things on two fronts: on philosophy and on technology. We pioneered the concept of ‘minimized product, maximized profit’. Globally, we work with smaller number of preferred suppliers. We pick the best agencies in our system. We brought people into the travel business who were not in the same domain. On technology front, we buy the best available platform and pass it on to our franchisee. One thing we did was the fare aggregation. In India, we have 3600 IATA agents and 90,000 non-IATA agents. Uniglobe offers the structure in doing business. We enable our franchisee to have access to our tool, training, technology so that our partner is on the business rather than being in the business. We have hubs/ regional offices which work with franchisee. We offer enormous individual motivation to do business. We are globally connected and locally implemented.
What is your expansion plan and where do you see yourself 5 years down the line?
In India, we should be 100 agency strong. In terms of sales revenue, we aim to achieve Rs 7,000- 8,000 crores which is more than double of the existing revenue. Globally, we will have regional headquarters in South America, North America, South Asia and EMEA. We see some significant expansion in Africa. Globally, we will be growing atleast by 50 per cent in revenue.