Newstrack

French hotel chain Club Med eyes Indian travellers

Andrea Lopez - Mumbai

French hotel chain Club Med has announced its desire to market itself to Indian outbound travellers. Known for its global premium holidays, Club Med operates its chain of hotels, known as 'Villages' in Europe, South America, Africa and Asia.

Mumtaz Moiz, its general manager (India), said, "Indian travellers have more spending power than what they did earlier and with low cost carriers (LCCs) coming into the market, travel is no longer niche. Indians are very comfortable in investing in longer holidays overseas." With the India representative office in Singapore, Club Med is looking to target the middle class affluent segment, families and group travellers as well as the MICE segment. In a unique initiative, Club Med is offering multinational companies the opportunity to rent any one of its 80 villages around the globe to organise its incentive programmes.

Club Med is already popularising itself among Indian travel agents. Says Moiz, "We have identified 300 agents in India. Based on the response generated, we will sell Club Med holidays through a network of PSAs next year." Currently Club Med is not looking at attaining any target figures. "For the first few months, we want to create brand awareness for the product and we will invest in advertising in both the B2B as well as the B2C segment," says Moiz. Starting rates for a Club Med Holiday are US$ 170 per person.