Brand Sustainability – Travel & Tourism companies in India
According to Forbes, a sustainable brand is one that has successfully integrated environmental, economic and social issues into business operations. However many companies that consider themselves to be sustainable only meet one third of its definition. So in what way the sustainability is correlated to tourism market and its respective travel companies?.
As per the recent UNWTO report, the tourism industries have started recognizing the need for the sector to “ensure sustainable practices and policies that minimizes the adverse effects of tourism on the use of natural resources, infrastructure, mobility and congestion, as well as its socio-cultural impact.”
As far as the travel companies are concerned, “quality” plays a major sustainable factor in the minds of the consumers in India. If the quality is provided as per the cost then there is more chance of losing the consumers in the tourism market of India. For example, a travel company in India decided to provide in cheap costs for tourism in India thinking in a way like a lot of consumers will be attracted. But eventually what happened is the travel company made tie ups with the hotels that are located bit far away from the tourism destinations where those hotels where influenced by much noise and air pollutions as well but still the company ensured good stay inside the hotel for the consumers. The result is consumers felt tired on travelling from the local hotel to the destination and way more got congested, irritated because of the traffic routes and noise pollutions as well in turn opting for that particular travel company started decreasing a lot. So sustainability is not about the packaging or the good level of service inside a hotel, it encompasses every aspect like environmental, social and infrastructure. The company is none other than “Kaleidoscope Travel Consultant”.
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Thomas Cook – Does it ensured Brand sustainability in Tourism market of India?
In India, there are more than 29 languages and different range of cultures. Thomas cook never compromised on the quality as its costing is always way high than other players in the market but seriously failed to understand the cultural aspects in each tourism destinations in India. It has a wide recognition for International tourism but failed to capture the tourism market with in India. The after sales service became worst as lot of chaos and confusions happened in the recent years as well. People in India use to book tourism 2 or 3 months before, during this timeline the hotel tie ups with Thomas Cook kept changing periodically and when the date comes for the tourism the consumers use to get frustrated on the finalization of the hotel stays and for the temporary solution consumers were compelled to stay in low graded hotels and still nothing is compromised on the cost but on the quality. Over a period of time more number of false promises happened and communications were done more centrally which means consumers cannot find an employee of Thomas cook in the destinations to guide further in terms of difficulties and customer service was totally clueless. However the costing is not reduced as it is a branded one in the global market but people started losing the trust whenever they face huddles in terms of environment and quality.
The Angle: Is the Brand sustainability depends on Global or local?
Of course the environmental factors remains same all over the globe but sustainability is all about covering the social, cultural, infrastructure and quality adding to the environmental factors. Thomas Cook done lot of things in terms of sustainable aviation and using Going Green phrase globally but adapting its sustainable nature towards local tourism is seriously failed and consumers felt like Thomas cook as a alien to the Indian tourism market and the company didn’t do any works on understanding the diversified culture of India. Simple example is food where 32% of people in India prefer vegetarian as they belong to a specific caste and according to them eating non vegetarian food is against the environment and their culture. This is a simple factor but the brand doesn’t realize this would affect the tourism market in India and didn’t show much importance towards it. These people were also put up along with the people who prefer non vegetarian foods and final result is disappointment and there were no separate kitchens in the hotels as both veg and non-veg foods will be prepared in the same place.
The Brand sustainability of MakeMyTrip.com
As India being a vast area, the company observed
the tastes and cultures of consumers. In one way the company offered lot of discounts but never compromised on the quality even if the living place is too small they ensured very low environmental impacts and good quality. According to MakeMyTrip.com the tourism is not about visiting new places or destinations, it is about the learning and understanding the other cultures without compromising on their very own culture and the entire sustainability build up is enabled on consumer’s point of view. People of India became more awareness on their environmental responsibilities so as more number of companies are also more attached towards it.
Infrastructure
Plays a major role in terms of travel market as if the stay is provided in a very distance way or in some kind of awkward hotels, consumers seriously lose their interests upon. MakeMyTrip.com chose to relax the travel time of consumers while visiting places and organized proper stays nearby the destinations as well and mostly within the circle of the city. They made more arrangements in organizing plays and dramas and helped consumers to attend the local events in order to make them to understand the culture as well. The company made it in a simple way but in high level of quality. The support channels are placed in all tourism destinations and if there is any huddle there will be a presence of a guide who helps the consumer to get rid of the huddle in an immediate way.
References
Vigneshwar ANNAMALAI
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