For Indians travelling abroad for vacations, it is no longer just about visiting Madame Tussauds to take a picture with Amitabh Bachchan’s wax model or checking out the must-see spots in Switzerland made famous by Bollywood. These are passé.
Instead, many Indians now keenly await mega international sporting events and plan their vacations accordingly. Sensing an opportunity, travel companies have begun weaving packages around these events.
The ongoing cricket world cup in Australia is the biggest event fuelling the sport-tourism trend right now. With India’s matches having been spaced well enough, a traveller to Australia for a week could have not only caught a couple of matches involving the ‘Men in Blue’ but also had enough time for sight-seeing.
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The package per person works out to about Rs.2.85 lakh. Some 2,000 Indians made the trip for the earlier matches, says travel service company CentrumDirect Managing Director T. C. Guruprasad. A very large Indian presence is being expected at Sydney Cricket Ground’s 46,000 capacity stadium during the semi-finals on Thursday.
Mr. Guruprasad, told The Hindu from Australia: “Starting from the many enquiries we were getting, we began developing our products around these international events. Sport tourism is an evolving vertical for our group.”
The group’s travel outfit had sent 45 Indians to the football world cup in Brazil in 2014. The nine-day package cost Rs.7 lakh a person. It also sent 60 tennis enthusiasts, many with their families, to Wimbledon. It is now cashing in on India’s cricket fever.
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Whether it is the Fifa World Cup, Wimbledon or Formula One racing, the idea of having a slice of the real action appeals to these travellers.
According to Travel Agents Federation of Eastern Region Chairman Anil Panjabi, the overall demand for international sporting events is increasing with people from even middle-income segments trying them out with their friends. Many affluent parents do sponsor their children on such vacations.
Not just that. Corporates too are using this as incentive-high performers. Recently, a major corporate house sponsored a trip to 350 of its employees so that they could watch a cricket match.
TTK Prestige Director Murali Neelakantan told The Hindu that the presence of large numbers of Indians in Australia is evidence of the growth of the sports tourism market. “I am seeing a large number of Indians here. The segment has clearly moved out from its niche.”
Travel companies operate in two segments: leisure (which includes escorted tours and free individual travel) and MICE (short for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions). MICE contributes 70 per cent of the topline of an average tour company.