Journalist Bhanuj Kappal’s last-ing memory of the Ziro Festival of Music, held at Ziro, Arunachal

Pradesh, is of having to leave just as Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley from seminal noise rock band Sonic Youth were wind-ing down their performance: “I was walking towards the buses, along dark hilly roads with slabs of guitar noise echoing off the hills.”

It may be personal bias talking, but the best tales of the road, are the ones that involve music festivals. Of meeting peo-ple you otherwise wouldn’t run into or bond with, singing along to The Trooper by Iron Maiden with Spanish Hells Angels, discussing racism with an anti-Nazi skinhead, being questioned about the finer nu-ances of the Hindu view on in-toxicating substances at 5 am in a disused airfield in Leipzig and large parts of a night spent running along a highway dot-ted by farms in Burgum, the Netherlands, having missed the bus to the tiny town of Leeuwarden, the last outpost of civili-zation and basecamp for the now sadly defunct Waldrock heavy metal festival.

There have been several attempts to get a local destination music fest scene going, a tough ask in a country where state governments typically take a dim view of most non-religiously motivated gatherings. And where travelling to see a band usually means heading to

Bengaluru or Delhi. The four year old Ziro Festival is a notable exception, having managed to survive and grow even as similar events held in Ladakh and Uttarakhand floundered. On a tour of the North East, the members Delhi based band Menwhopause found them-selves stranded at Ziro after a couple of shows got cancelled. Band members Anup Kutty and Randeep Singh were so impressed by the place that they decid-ed to start a festival based there along

with Bobby Hano, a local event organiser. They got a very en-couraging response from the state tourism board.

The alt rock lineup is only part of Ziro’s draw. It gives t ravel ler s a chance to expe-r i e n c e

a ver y u nique culture firsthand. Many of the festival audience opt for home stays, and are welcomed by the lo-cals, the Apatanis. B e t w e e n t h e bands at Ziro and the cultural pro-

grammes at the Hornbill Festival, a more broad based weeklong event that takes place in Nagaland, there’s a lot to do for an adventurous traveller: bird-watching, treks and cycling tours.

The audience at Ziro is typically be-tween ages 20 to 45. The sense of com-munity and camaraderie gets built not just at the destination over local brews, but on the road as the audience crams into jeeps and buses to get there. Says Kappal who intends to return to Ziro this year, “In a big music festival, there’s a bunch of your friends and a whole lot of people you don’t want to talk to. This feels like a shared festival the way a big music festival doesn’t.

There’s none of the cliquey bitchy nonsense you get elsewhere.”

Singh says, “We were quite con-vinced about the place; it’s so

magical that we thought slowly and steadily, peo-

ple will come in.” The festival’s last edition went on for four days and drew in a total of

10,000 people, a mix of music fans from India,

locals from the state and the region, and even a few people from New Zealand.

— Ravi Balakrishnan

CNN recently reported about a man who holidays in conflict zones; “He’s dodged Russian soldiers in the bombed

out ruins of Chechnya, infiltrated a Ku Klux Klan militia, played golf in Pyongyang and stayed with a former headhunting tribe in Myanmar.” 50 year old Andrew Drury’s next trip: frontlines of the Syrian war. His first ever trip was organised by Untamed Borders, an adventure travel com-pany with a peculiar specialty — high-risk travel. The company specialises in trips to Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, former Soviet Central Asia and the Caucasus.

The global adventure travel mar-ket is valued at roughly $263 billion according to the Adventure Travel Trade

Association. Research has also found that the adventure-minded tourist spends an average of 40 hours researching their trips. A summer sojourn in a war zone would naturally need a bit more time. An increasing number of travellers are becoming more and more intrigued by the prospect of danger/disaster-tour-ism and adventure trips. But the likes of a safari in IS infested territory is not

everyone’s cup of tea. For the rest of us,

there’s rafting in frigid Himalayan waters or swimming with great whites or riding a Bullet from Mumbai to Ladakh or joining an expedition to the South Pole. Despite growing interest and more traditional and new tour operators offering “soft” adventures, the Indian adventure travel market is relatively small, estimated at ̀ 500-600 crore. However,

last year, French sports re-tailer Decathlon, trekkers’ and adventure junkies’ Mecca, doubled its store count to 24. Thomas Cook’s ‘What Women Want’ adventure travel package for female travelers was intro-duced a few years ago, but the real pick-up happened in 2015,

according to the company. And there’s another aspect of the ad-

venture traveller that makes her or him unique. They are competitive. Their jour-neys are typically about battling the ele-ments and winning. A new app, Adventure Junky has homed in on this peculiar trav-eller trait and has taken real-life adventure travel and added an element of competi-tion and reward. Clearly, beating Mother Nature’s best champions is not enough.

— Delshad Irani

In London’s artistic East End dis-trict, there is a grisly tour that takes the tourists, those with

a taste for gore and guts, through the stomping grounds of Jack the Ripper. Certified Ripperologists, (there is such a thing!), take the iron-willed and hearted on a trip to check out the victims, crime scenes, the ev-idence and the cobbled streets where the Ripper once walked and mur-dered. In Switzerland, on the former country estate of the Chaplin fam-ily, in Corsier-sur-Vevey, a whole new world around the man with the bowler hat is due to open soon, and the tour would include a peep into the private life of the great co-median along with a showcase of his artistic works. The itineraries on most tourist-companies reel is mor-phing to newer forms and including

things which would have been considered eccentric a while ago.

Closer home, even as Jaipur gets a large crop of travellers flocking to its forts and palaces, there are many whose annual pilgrimage to the Pink City is principally to

be a part of the now iconic Jaipur Literature Festival that claims to be the world’s largest free literary festi-val. It attracts enthusiasts from all over the globe. In the Southern part of the country, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, launched in 2012, attracts hordes of aficionados from all over the globe to join in. The Biennale hopes to position Kochi as a reposi-tory of emerging ideas and ideolo-gies. Sulafest, the wine-festival that is in its 9th edition, has made a destination of the Sula Vineyards, near the city of Nashik, thanks to its growing popularity. An event that started off small has now become a premier festival with its mix of

wine, food, music and stand-up acts. The big driver for the new age travel-

ler, across the globe and India as well, is the ability to create and curate experience suited to one’s own preference and taste. While a large majority travels for ob-vious reasons, there is a silent minority, growing in numbers, which has got their own motivations to visit places that can range from films to art to literature and many more. London & Partners, the official promotional company for London, funded by the Mayor of London, has launched its latest tour-

ism campaign for the city, ‘Fans of London’. Shares Tori Dance, head of tourism, London & Partners, “the

campaign seeks to celebrate the blockbuster events, ex-hibitions and anniversa-ries taking place across the capital this year.” The high-lights include: the Queen’s 90th birthday, the 400th an-niversary of Shakespeare’s legacy and the world’s first Rolling Stones exhibition.

Says Vishal Suri, managing director, SOTC Travel, “This culture venturer has a unique hunger to sample varied cultures from across the world.”

— Amit Bapna

There used to be only two sorts of Indian leisure time traveller. These probably continue to be the dominant categories: families that travel on vacation, which typically (but not always)

takes them back to an ancestral home or pilgrims visit-ing various temples and shrines all year round.

The agenda for the former when they ventured to a new place was one of brutal simplicity: cover as much ground as possible in as little time as possible, stopping only for the mandatory family photo, against a famous landmark. Pilgrims may have started with little other than god on their minds, but over the years, they’ve wanted their personal time with the deity to be a lot quicker and hassle free.

Around these broad categories though, are a whole range of Indians travelling for a variety of reasons. This special issue of Brand Equity looks at these travellers, the tech that keeps them moving and how coun-tries across the board are wooing them. Here you will find inspiration and insight, but what we are hoping for is it that it will rekindle the dormant impulses that some of you may have to get up and go someplace new.

Are you the kind of traveller who likes to settle into a resort, drink margaritas by the pool, pillage the mini bar and, if you’re feeling particularly

adventurous, drive to the nearest McDonald’s? Or are you the kind who likes to “go local”? Some travellers, especially millennials, yearn for richer experiences, travels with a greater purpose. People are immersing themselves in foreign cultures, interacting with natives (and not from behind protective glass or by the hour) and travelling responsibly. This need for meaningful jour-neys has given birth to a relatively small but growing tribe of purpose driven tourists. They are voluntourists,

people combining holidays with charity work. Or they are simply travellers who want to turn their hiatus into an enrich-ing, helpful and personality-altering ex-perience. Organizations like WWOOF or Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms, for instance, offer travellers a chance to live on farms and learn about

organic lifestyles in return for hands-on help. In 2007, Vinod Sreedhar started his company Journeys With

Meaning which offers programs that leave travellers “a little disturbed but also inspired”. The goal: Not a fridge magnet. Rather the objective is to reconnect with nature, unfamiliar cultures and communities and one-self. Discover an alternative, sustainable way of living in Ladakh at the home of a 70-year old devastated by eco-nomic and environmental hardships yet hopeful for the future or spend a week in Meghalaya with 800-year-old forest-dwelling communities. Sreedhar is now working on developing a program for corporates.

But if that’s too hardcore, there’s an entire universe of apps which caters to travellers who want to go local but not get their hands dirty. Tripbod, Vayable, Feastly, etc, connect a community of hosts with niche tourists like gourmands or night photography enthusiasts, to pro-vide that customised, original travel experience which few others have had.

— Delshad Irani

The Danger-

tourist

A whole range of Indians are travelling for a variety of reasons

Itineraries are mor-phing to include things that were con-sidered eccentric

$263 Billion Value of the global adventure travel sector

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The Localist

Volun-tourists combine holidays with charity

The best road tales are the ones that involve music festivals

With summer vacation almost upon us, we take a look at the developments and disruptions in the Travel & Tourism sector. A BE Special Issue

The Purpose Driven Traveller

Music Festival Junkie

The Culturist

THE ECONOMIC TIMES APRIL 06-12, 2016

2 MILLION LISTINGS

Stick Em Up It’s not the lizard that frightens Caravaggio’s boy. It’s that aw-ful contraption, the bane of every museum director’s existence — the Selfie Stick. Will Mona lose an eye today or Venus her head? Many museums around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), have added the selfie stick to their list of banned items which include other dangerous objects like grenades and two-year

olds in the throes of a sugar rush. In 2015, in Cremona, Italy, a selfie stick destroyed a marble statue of Hercules. Several people have come dangerously close to knocking over priceless Egyptian busts and skewer-ing Vermeer’s masterpieces. Even without a stick, though, selfies are a real threat to art and antiquities. One victim: the Drunken Satyr at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera in Milan. A statue of a follower of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, passed out after one too many te-quila shots. A foreign student sat on the naked Satyr’s leg to take a selfie and broke it. Disney and Wimbledon have banned selfie sticks, too.

delshad.irani@timesgroup.com

MISSING THE FOREST FOR THE TIGER

Post First Social media has engulfed every aspect of travel and tourism. Perhaps the biggest transformation is in the way people travel, interact with foreign,

unfamiliar places, people and cultures. We experience the physical world through a virtual lens. We live in the time of ‘pics or it didn’t happen’.

It’s affected how we share experiences with each other, not just for its sake or to boast and broadcast. But to share hard earned knowledge, a kind of cultural currency. Social media has made us, for lack of a better word, lazy and ‘play it safe’ travellers. Discarding adventures and thrills of the unknown, unwittingly perhaps, for the comfort and security of being constantly connected. Tethered to a familiar world in alien lands. However, it has also given us access to information that was perhaps inaccessible or not easy to find before. “Where can I get the best ramen in Kyoto?” This isn’t a search on Google. It’s a tweet by a person looking for insider-tips in real-time. Also TripAdvisor, which claims to be the world’s

largest travel site, has travellers both on the road and those currently at home or at work, helping with queries like the easiest way to get from one end of a country to the other, quick and cheap, its owlish logo is becoming the Lonely Planet recommendation for the 21st century.

Over 1.5 billion monthly active users post billions of photos and videos of strange sights and (real) beef steaks, “checking in” at places like St. Peter’s Square and Burning Man Festival, on Facebook. Also the

world’s largest social network has, for all intents and purposes, made the physical photo-album virtually redundant. Snapchat is the new darling of travel startups exploring new, low-cost ways to provide immersive brand experiences to users. And Instagram and its filters have turned us all into travel photographers.

The image of a newly wed in chooras (wedding bangles) and shorts, on a beach in Goa, Mauri-tius or Pattaya is easily amongst the top identi-

fiers of ‘how Indians travel today’. It’s also an image filled with symbolisms. It celebrates tradition and an attempt to escape from it, in the same breath. Its laden with a desire to explore a new life, yet stamped heavi-ly with social approval. Clearly, it points to our desire for the new without letting-go of tradition. But when it comes to travel, can we really experience the new by holding so strongly to ourselves?

Indians like to travel in the comfort of the familiar. We look for the Indian restaurant wherever we go, pack theplas for a snack and always carry a jar of pickle with us. We land up at beaches in sarees, and bring back LCD TVs as souvenirs. If travel is an ex-ploration of the ‘other’ and the ‘new’, we seem more interested in the familiar and ourselves. In fact tour operators such as Kesari tours have made a big deal of Indian chefs on-board their tours. The truth is that one of the best ways to know another culture is through its food. But how would you get the taste of

another culture through your own food?It appears that travel for us is largely an escape for

the body than an expedition for the mind. Therefore, we indulge in the excesses of the familiar – food, alco-hol and shopping, rather than experimenting with the new. The joys are more sensory, less experiential. So bungee jumping and massage - yes, but history walks and food tour – maybe not. Perhaps we hold ourselves, our beliefs our behav-iours so tightly that we leave hardly any room for absorbing the new.

This is interesting if you note that his-torically in India, crossing the seas was seen as a mark of reli-gious transgression. There were prescrip-tions of ritual cleans-ing for those who did

that. Perhaps it was driven by the fear of losing your purity — there might be influences from other cul-tures that can be polluting. Even today, we have our guards up when we travel – vegetarians have to watch out against shrimps in Thai curry, non-vege-tarians against frog meat and so on. It’s not wrong to have your personal preferences, we all have them.

But the stories that come back are gener-ally in the zone of how one has protected his identity and sanctity by not partici-

pating in the ways of the other culture.This means that we have largely been tourists, not

travellers. We seek to escape, not explore. So the aloo puri that accompanies us is not merely about famil-iar food, it is about our comfort with familiarity hold-ing us back from exploring the new. Thereby turning us into the tourists of the expected. The must-visit attractions make for popular Facebook posts, but there’s a lot that lies beyond these attractions that stays unexplored, because we choose to stay tourists, in the fear of turning travellers.

Travel in its true sense can be the greatest mind opener. It can teach you tolerance for other’s way of life and beliefs. It can en-rich you with new experiences and reve-lations. It will certainly change you a bit,

hopefully for the better. But travel means being able to appreciate the authentic, be-

ing able to experience the soul of the other. This requires you to sur-render yourself, to open up to someone else’s realities. More

importantly, it asks us not be so tight fisted about our own identity and let go of the worry that our sanctity will be compromised.

The mainstream travel market in India is largely based on the insight that Indians like to travel with the familiar. The most popular tours are with friends and families, Indian cooks on board and tothe familiar destinations of Bangkok, Hong Kong and Switzerland. There is a growing trend of offbeat travel solutions that cater to the traveller — the oneswilling to let go in order to gain more. But this is a niche. The real opportunity is in bridging this gap, in turning the tourist into the traveller. In promot-ing the idea of cultural adventure beyond aloo puriand theplas. In travel as an idea of opening up, not holding on. And as a nation that travels more, we will hopefully open up more, to ourselves and to oth-ers — maybe less hatred on social media for every-body! Or even world peace!

The writer is the author of ‘India Reloaded’ and ‘Consumer India’ ; and the chief strategy

officer, SE Asia, Grey.

CAN INDIANS WHO HOLD ON TO FAMILIARITY BECOME TRAVELLERS?

ByInvitation

The real opportunity is in bridging the gap...promoting the idea of cultural adventure beyond aloo puri and theplaDheeraj Sinha Grey

‘‘II absolutely do not want to see any more deer, peacock, birds or langur. If any of

these show up, don’t bother stop-ping! Stop only if there’s a tiger or a leopard.” Aimed at the guide and the driver of our open air Canter at Ranthambore National Park, our co-passenger was loud enough to be heard by everyone. Maybe even the deer, peacocks and langur; they showed up in such vast numbers, it almost felt like revenge. The big cats how-ever remained elusive.

It was tempting to dismiss our companion as a typical ‘Ugly Indian’ tourist — her other sug-gestions were paved roads within the sanctu-ary, and that the trees be chopped so they wouldn’t brush against the park’s human visitors. But at least when it came to the tigers, her disappoint-ment was, in a way, un-derstandable.

F r o m t h e m o m e nt one arrives at Sawai Madhopur, the station closest to Ranthambore, the tiger is immediately established as presiding deity. A vast majority of the beautifully painted murals in the railway station — incidentally, one of the cleanest I have ever encountered — are of tigers, cubs and more tigers. At hotels and jungle resorts, people bond over whether they have had a darshan yet.

Because more than anything, a visit to a national park calls to mind a pilgrimage. What’s missing is the VIP queue that an urban time strapped audience doesn’t mind forking out extra cash for, which brings with it speed and several other guaran-tees and reassurances. But then, tigers are more like actual gods than idols; elusive beings, not easily found even after what feels like a lifetime of searching.

It’s a reality that soon dawns on a public who have watched just enough TV to assume tigers and other big cats are given to lolling about photogenically all over na-ture reserves. They feel cheated at having to settle for “lesser” animals. The get pushy and loud with park guides and tour bus drivers. Tour operators are left squirming, tormented by guilt at a situation they have no real con-trol over.

Part of the problem is market-ing. A relentless wave of propa-ganda has made Indian nature parks all about the tiger: from state tourism films, to listicles that rank parks in terms of tiger spotting; to the bragging rights that a sighting or a photograph invariably confers. Tigers in the wild are a big draw, often the main reason to visit a sanctuary. And it’s not too long a journey from main to only reason.

Which explains why people remain oblivious to the aston-ishing variety of terrain, cacti, trees and grasses; the interplay between landscapes and sky, the staggering varieties of birds,

even the very air they breathe — so different from the chemical fog that swirls around us in our cities. It explains why they are contemp-tuous of the sambharand spotted deer, giv-ing some these magnifi-cent animals the same attention they’d pay a crow or pigeon back home. And why a child in our group piped up after a tiger sighting with “We’ve seen the tiger! Why don’t we just go back now?”

Maybe it’s time to f lip the or-der of priorities: from parks be-ing mainly about tigers to being about nature in all its glory in-cluding tigers that may or may not make an appearance. It will require tremendous courage and honesty in advertising, both commodities permanently in short supply. And it could result in an at least temporary drop in revenue, considering that the ti-ger public, who sign up for mul-tiple tours in a day, are among the biggest spenders.

As I sat through a couple of days of hapless guides, sullen drivers and irate tourists, I thought of a trip to Corbett years ago. Perhaps it’s time all our national parks made a plaque or mission state-ment out of something our guide told us during that visit: “We are going into a jungle. Maybe you will see every animal that lives here and maybe you will see ab-solutely nothing. That’s just the way jungles are. If all you want to do today is to see wildlife, please go back to your hotel rooms and fire up National Geographic or Animal Planet.”ravi.balakrishnan@timesgroup.com

Is it time to retire the tiger as brand ambassador for our national parks?BY Ravi Balakrihshnan

Books or shoes? The answer: Kindle. Penguin Books, founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and VK Krishna Menon, made pocketable

books and changed how people read at home and on the road. Tech Crunch

calls the 6-inch Kindle Voyage, Penguin’s “emotional successor”. Because “both revolutionised the

physical notion of books.”

Statue of Hercules in Italy mutilated by a selfie stick. (Source: Telegraph.co.uk)

Whose Home Is It Anyway? Like Google, Airbnb is close to becoming a verb. Despite regulatory and security concerns, Airbnb, poster-child of the sharing economy, is valued at $25.5 billion, thanks to the millions who use it to “check-in” at people’s homes, mansions, castles, boats, igloos and teepees.

Google Maps, Street View and Google Translate: If people from the TV show ‘Lost’ had Google Maps, the long-running series would have ended after Season 1. Internet-willing, no woman, man or child can ever lose their way or be taken for a ride by a merciless cabbie, if one has Google Maps. Save, customise, integrate, get traffic updates, take photo tours, check event listings, and search for hotels. With Street View, what you see is really what you get. No surprises. So check out places you plan to visit or simply pay virtual visits. Take a stroll down Unter den Linden or Marine Drive or Times Square. And how do you say “Is this vegetarian?” in Swedish?

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Tigers are more like actual gods than idols; elusive beings not easily found

Tech That Changed Travel

GUESTS

54%:46%FEMALE: MALE

500,000STAYS PER NIGHT

60MILLION USERS

640,000HOSTS

190COUNTRIES

+34,000CITIES

Excess Luggage? (SOURCE: COMMONS.WIKIMEDIA.ORG)

GET LOST

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi is non-negotiable. Hotels are chosen not just on the basis of ensuite baths and 1000 count Egyptian cotton sheets but whether they have Wi-Fi or not. Think about it. What do you say to the garcon when he seats you? “Menu, please?” No. “What’s the Wi-Fi password, please?” is more like it. No Wi-Fi, no Facebook updates. And that’s just unacceptable.

WhatsApp and Skype When was the last time you bought an international calling card? Used a pay phone? Communication tools like video calling app, Skype and messaging and calling service WhatsApp help us stay in touch, constantly. Even when we’re away from friends and family swimming in Cleopatra’s pool in Pamukkale, they are a free call away.

Technology has forever changed the way billions travel for pleasure or business. Smartphones, apps, biometrics, the sharing economy and social media have, for better and worse, affected travel in immeasurable

ways, from digitised room keys and itineraries to selfie sticks. Here are some of the most obvious but significant and peculiar disruptors. By Delshad Irani

TURNING THE TOURIST INTO A TRAVELLER

Russian photographer Murad Osmann’s photos with his girlfriend leading him around the world

THE ECONOMIC TIMES APRIL 06-12, 2016 2

Wh e n p r o l i f i c Bollywood filmmaker Yash Chopra shot his 1985, release Faasle in Switzerland, little did he know that his films

would become the best brand ambassa-dor the European country could have hired, at least for an Indian audience. For the next 10 years, all his films had some Switzerland in them, driving hordes of desis to the Alps. Such was his popular-ity that a lake in the Alpenrausch, a fa-vourite shooting spot of his, was named Chopra Lake and Interlaken’s Victoria Jungfrau Grand Hotel offered visitors the ‘Yash Chopra suite’. More recent-ly, Zoya Akhtar’s ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ (2011) did something similar for Spain, a rare instance of a single film bringing a destination to the con-sideration set of an audience. It was done with a calibrated embedding of the sig-nature Spanish fare — locations as well as cultural references — the colorful La Tomatina, bull-fighting and flamenco — all to bring alive the experience that the destination stands for. Whether it’s a soda, soap or city, it is an experience, says Gregg Clampffer, creative direc-

tor at 72andSunny Amsterdam. In his view, in both cases — cities and soda — it’s about finding an aspect of truth that people who know the product best would be proud to share, and a fantasy people want to relate to.

Destinations have been working furi-ously at marketing themselves to a fast evolving traveller who has different pri-orities and requirements, increasingly getting anchored around personalisa-

tion and localisation. “The new age trav-eller opts for personalised/self-created itineraries.” says Vishal Suri, manag-ing director, SOTC Travel. After all the affluent middle class in India equals roughly the size of the entire US popula-tion, and with a reported average holiday budget of $1700 per traveller on outbound trips, it represents an interesting source market for destinations around the world. One that the various destinations

and travel-related brands are working hard to entice. John O’ Sullivan, manag-ing director, Tourism Australia counts India as one of its Top 8 markets by the volume and Top 10 by value, and is con-fident of this moving to a Top 5 position by 2025. Their Tourism Australia cam-paign ‘There is Nothing Like Australia’ created by BBDO Clemenger, Sydney is counted as an unswerving story told well going by the growth of tourist traf-fic to Australia.

The quest for newer experiences is of prime importance. Thailand for long was the destination known for its price-focused packages, however now it is consciously moving away to focus on an offering of luxury, culture and new experiences. Shares Soraya Homchuen, director, Tourism Authority of Thailand – Mumbai Office, “today even if we’re showcasing a beach, our communica-tion would reflect a luxury experience.” One of their ads had a smiling couple en-joying a rustic but evidently painstak-ingly put together candlelight dinner on a beach, with the copy – “Darling all the restaurants were booked! This beach is all I could find!”

While Bollywood gave a platform to

lure the Indian traveller to Switzerland, it is no longer actively reaching out via that route instead it is reinforcing its over 15 year old positioning of ‘Get Natural’ through a range of initiatives. Says Ritu Sharma, deputy director and media head – India, Switzerland Tourism, “Switzerland has always branded itself as the destination which offers a traveller true quality, unspoilt nature and environmentally sustain-able tourism.” These are not just brand values for promotion but can be seen as a way of life in Switzerland, she adds. The luxury hotel Badrutt’s Palace in St. Moritz, for example, uses a heat exchange system to heat foyers and suites with water from Lake St. Moritz. Sunstar hotels is the first hotel group worldwide to guarantee carbon neutral holidays and the famous resort town Interlaken, offers an environmentally compatible mobility guarantee.

“The global adventurer-explorer is looking for experience in everything he/she does and hotels of the future need to actively cater to this notion,” says David Keen, CEO of the travel branding firm QUO Global, which has recently created a new brand of hotels in Europe, Jaz in the City. These hotels focus more on experience than function, he adds. It is assumed the functionality is in place and the experience is what will make the guest a fan and bring them back.

Though much of the re-search seems to suggest that repeat business is what will drive destina-tion branding, Dr Renuka Kamath, professor, market-ing at SP Jain Institute of Management has a dif-fering point of view. “I strongly believe there is a case for des-tination marketing organisations to keep looking for new travellers – those who look for ‘that one very different holi-day’ each time t h e y w a n t to pamper themselves

or get away, rather than do a repeat.” Today’s traveller wants new and differ-ent experiences that can also give him (or her) bragging rights!

The other big piece in the new-age marketing of a destination is keeping in mind the sensibilities and cultures of the prospective traveller. British Airways, for example has launched campaigns talking specifically to the Indian travel-ler – ‘Visit Mum’ to promote the route be-tween India and North America in 2013 and more recently ‘Fuelled By Love’ cre-ated by SapientNitro India. The digital film was the British carrier’s bid at talk-ing to its third largest market, after the UK and the US, in an idiom they would understand, while showcasing its rela-tionship with India since 1924. “In India, most consumers have leapfrogged the desktop or laptop computer and gradu-ated straight to mobile internet and e-commerce and we understand that mo-bile technology is key to ensure selling success,” shares Abigail Comber, head of customer, British Airways. Other airlines like Lufthansa, the German carrier too have tried traversing the lo-cal route – they launched a global digi-tal campaign ‘Celebrate Diwali’ a few months back to reach out to Indian cus-tomers around the world.

The branding strategy has to navigate the global and locali-

sation mix. Switzerland’s re-cent campaign, Grand Tour of Switzerland, was about a 1600 km route connecting all of the country’s touristic

and natural highlights in one route. In addition, since

Indians love the public transpor-tation system of Switzerland, the Grand

Train Tour of Switzerland was a supple-mentary campaign, informs Sharma. Thailand stands for the same things globally as it does in India, but experi-ences marketed under each are suitably tweaked, shares Soraya Homchuen. So

while Indians love beaches, they’re not fans of the sun, something that may

be a great deal for the Europeans. Hence while selling the desti-nation to Indians the beach ac-tivities are showcased instead. Finally every destination story is about escape and experience.

amit.bapna@timesgroup.com

To convince most Indians to head out, travel needs to be personal

and, strangely enough, local. By Amit Bapna

The New Age Traveller’s Rule Book

Yash Chopra’s films became the best brand ambassador for Switzerland mid-80s onwards, driving hordes of Indians to the Alps

The Savings & Expenditure Stack-up

The Infl uencer Set

Going Solo? Not Yet

More and more people are holidaying a lot more. Taking a holiday is forming an integral part of the basket of annual household expenditure.

A look at the catalysts of the travel decision. Not surprisingly destination tops the stack and very surprisingly, social networking sites trail behind

People still like to travel in groups and the two prime reasons for the group holiday preference is cost effectiveness and Indian cuisine

17%

15%13%

10%

9%

8%

7%

1%

Savings for Current Use

Holidays - International / Domestic

Clothes & Apparels

Electronic Gadgets

Hobbies / Interest

4 Wheeler / 2 Wheeler

Fine Dinning / Restaurants / Pubs

20%Savings for Future Use

Others

73%Destination 61%

Duration of Holiday

55%Demands by

Family / Friends

53%Attractive Travel

Packages52%Mode of Travel 50%

Hotels (activities and amenities)

38%Hobbies / Interests

27%Travel Websites and Blogs

27%School

Vacations

26%Social

Networking Sites

(Source: A study conducted by the holiday company Kuoni-SOTC along with Nielsen on how Indians holiday)

TOP REASONS

FOR CHOOSING

GROUP HOLIDAYS

f

81%Cost

Effective

68%Indian Food

61%Trust &

Guidance61%

Sightseeing

8%Tour

Manager54%

Hassle Free

39%Traveling with Regional Community

/ Common Language

THIN

KST

OCK

The new age traveller is

opting for person-alised and self-cre-ated itineraries

Vishal Suri MD, SOTC Travel

Indians’ favourite holiday destinations as currencies continue fallingAs per data combined by several travel companies, Indians have increased their travels to Europe, Russia, Canada and New Zealand by 25-30%. This has happened because of weakening currencies in these regions, which promises travellers more fun from their money. “A weak international economic

climate has a lot of opportunities to offer to budgtravellers. Indians who plan to visit countries whose

currencies have devalued can enjoy more value for their money and spend more,” Neelu Singh, CEO of Ezeego1.com, told ET. While on one hand,

USD is strengthening with each passing day, discouraging Indian travel-lers from travelling there, Russian ruble, Swedish krona, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar, New Zealand

dollar, as well as the Euro and Danish krone have depreciated

by 10 to 50% against the rupee over the last two years.This has allowed Indians

to consider these coun-tries, which are also popular

travel destinations, as travel options.To cash in the fall in these curren-

cies, travel companies are offering

lucrative packages and low rates, further prompting Indian travellers to make up their minds. “Our strategy to inspire consumer

uptake has been two pronged: recalibrate our product portfolio - enhancing our packages and these work well in light of the depreciating rupee,” said Rajeev D Kale, president and CEO of MICE, domestic and sports tourism, Thomas Cook (India).

(Source: businessinsider.com)

When you leave the habitual world of your home and immerse yourself in another culture, your neural networks crackle

with fireworks of creativity. But ‘immerse’ is the operative word here. If you go on a whistle-stop tour where you do not engage with the local culture, it does not leave an impact on you.

Tagore, my creative guru, started traveling at age eleven; first around India and then abroad. He end-ed up visiting thirty different countries, an extraor-dinary record in the days of ships and locomotives. This enriched his oeuvre in so many ways.

A family he lived with in England used to gather around the piano and sing. This intimate experi-ence of English, Irish and Scottish songs had a clear influence on the melodies he composed later in life.

Later, when Tagore was traveling in the Argentin-ian countryside with his beloved Victoria Ocampo – an Argentinian writer – he came across the skele-ton of a cow. He was inspired to write his poem The Skeleton. It was also, in a sense, his response to Baudelaire’s Une Charogne, a poem about decay that Ocampo had been discussing with him. It is obvious that Tagore would never have writ-ten this specific poem had it not been for this particular journey. Such examples are legion in his works.

Going to foreign lands has helped many writers flourish. Readers of Hemingway know that travel was central to his books. Death in the Afternoon, for example, is a pas-sionate look at bull fighting in Spain. Ayn Rand, born and educat-ed in Russia, moved to America in adulthood and became one of the most celebrated American novel-ists and philosophers. Closer to home, William Dal-rymple’s travels to India seem to have helped him make his mark as a writer.

Not just in writing or composing, but in all of the arts, there are examples of creativity flourishing

with travel. When Gaugin went to Tahiti, for in-stance, his paintings took on a unique hue that he will always be remembered by.

Coming back to writers (perhaps because I am one!), Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain’s only best-seller in his lifetime, was written during a trip along

the Mediterranean coast. In that book he famously wrote that travel is “fatal to prej-udice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.” What was postulated by Twain in 1869 is now being scientifically proven in various studies.

One study has found that travel reduces prejudice, increases empathy and allows you to connect with human beings, regard-less of their culture. Perhaps it is this fact that has helped me create advertising suc-cessfully for my clients in the Middle East and South East Asia. My multicultural journey has allowed me to get into the minds of these ‘foreign’ consumers. A heightened cultural sensitivity, developed over my stints abroad, has helped me avoid landmines that someone less well traveled might walk into while communicating with someone from another land.

According to another study, travel boosts creativity because it breaks the humdrum routine of your daily life. Perhaps this is what happened to me when I was stuck in a rut at one stage in my ca-reer. Piyush Pandey sent me to look after the crea-tive department in our Sri Lanka office. I felt so in-

spired by my new environment and the warmth of the people there, I went into creative overdrive. The work that my team and I did in the few months that I was there won us the agency of the year crown. When I left, the recruitment ad I wrote to find my replacement won a CAG award in Mumbai, quite an honour back in the day.

When you grow up in a particular place, you be-lieve that the accepted way of doing things in that culture is the only way. When you spend time abroad, you find yourself among people who do things differently from you – it makes you question yourself, question the tried and tested. That is how fresh new approaches emerge.

Science says that travel makes your mind more flexible, allowing you to jump between ideas to form unexpected connections – which is the essence of creativity. When I was working on adoption, a soft toy – a kangaroo with its joey – that I bought in Aus-tralia triggered the entire idea for a campaign.

Travel, literally, creates a distance between you and a problem–or, in the world of advertising, a brief. This distance allows you to put things in per-spective in a way that you would never have been able to back home – where you were simply too close to the subject.

The only thing more effective than travel for stimu-lating creativity is, in my experience, an imminent deadline. A good enough note as any on which to end this article.

The author is executive creative director, South Asia, Ogilvy

OGILVY’S SUMANTO CHATTOPADHYAY SAYS THERE’S NOTHING QUITE LIKE TRAVEL (AND BRUTAL DEADLINES) TO GET THE BEST OUT OF CREATIVES

TRAVEL AND DEADLINESByInvitation

SUMANTO CHATTOPADHYAY

Travel makes you question

the tried & tested, that

is how fresh approaches

emerge

Rabindranath Tagore, Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain and Ayn Rand (SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA)

Caption: Brand campaigns for Australia, Switzerland and

Thailand

THE ECONOMIC TIMES APRIL 06-12, 2016 3

WomenThey look at holidays primarily as an escape from the household chores. They seek pampering and indulgence which they are deprived of at home, running errands. Long relaxing spas and beauty treatments tops the list of indulgence.

Women fi nd pleasure in spending on shopping at the local markets and buying collectibles and souvenirs and rate pampering as their most sought after priority while on holiday.

They seek company. They are comfortable with family and friends to share the whole new experience. Sharing and involvement are sought after and makes for an intimate affair that ignites connection and warmth.

Women want to make sure that the pace of the vacation is brisk. A compact holiday with more places covered is a welcome attribute. A locale dense trip ensures they have more memories to take back and more stories to tell.

WHAT WOMEN WANT AND WHAT MEN WANT, FROM A HOLIDAY?

Just as in most other things, here too men are from Mars and women are from Venus and seek different things when on a holiday. The challenge is to meet on a common ground and have a happy holiday

Ad gurus pick their favourites from several years worth of campaigns pushing Indian states, part of an overarching Incredible India initiative

MenThey like to indulge too. While they do enjoy company, they are clear about their need for alone time. Men seek space when on a holiday.

They are always around people, networking,

building and associating. A holiday for them is fundamentally a holiday from all of this.

Solitude, a couple of drinks and the

vacation party sets sail.

They love exploring quirky markets

that are not to be found in

their own city or country. The idiosyncrasy of the locale captivates a male traveller

and adds to the thrill.

Men enjoy company too. They like to spend their day with the family taking adventure trips, seeing new places and enjoying local cuisine but in the night they aspire to have some time with the guys. Like women seek freedom from household chores, men want to free themselves from the burdens of workplace and economy.

Senthil Kumar, chief creative officer, J Walter Thompson

The most moving has always been Kerala tourism. Though

online there’s discussions about whether it’s been lifted from Mexico Tourism, the campaign before the current one was very motivating: anyone would look at it and decide ‘I need to pack my bags and go.’ Motivating every viewer to be a traveller is the ob-jective in any case.

I also love the Jammu & Kashmir tourism work. It’s very similar to Kerala — almost still images, but the way it was shot, it was obvious that the length and breadth of the state was traversed in that film. It made me want to explore more of it. I’ve of course been to both places, but these films made me realise there are things I haven’t seen and want to explore: it triggered a response not as a cre-ative direc-tor but as a viewer.

Jitender Dabas,chief strategy officer, McCann WorldGroup

My favourite remains the MP tourism campaign

– ‘Hindustan ka Dil dekho’. Till then one never thought of Madhya Pradesh as a tourist destination but that campaign successfully re-positioned the state as a tourist’s goldmine. A lot of state tourism campaigns are essentially trying to pitch the same proposition of ‘so much to see’ in different ways and I felt that the MP tourism campaign held it together the best for me — with its unexpected yet flavoured execution. A lot of tourism cam-paigns become captive of visual craft. The MP tourism campaign has lent itself effortlessly to non-visual mediums where a lot of other campaigns would fail.

Rohit Ohri, group chairman & CEO, FCB Ulka

My favourite state-tourism ad is MP tourism. I love the core

thought… Madhya Pradesh…‘Hindustan ka dil’. Or the Heart of Incredible India. The thought clearly positioned MP vis-a-vis the other states and brought alive the soul of the state. MP is not top of mind when it comes to ‘must visit places in India’ and this campaign put the state squarely in the consid-eration set of top tourism destina-tions in India. This vibrant ‘heart of India’ was beautifully captured in the ‘Sau Rang’ ad. I visited the Pench National Park and the cam-paign definitely had some part to play in that.

Ajai Jhala, CEO, BBDO India

My favourite tourism cam-paign of all time is Club

Med’s - Antidote for CivilisationThree words that capture the

fundamental reason why we seek to escape the daily humdrum of our mundane and mechanical lives. Closer home I think the campaign for Diu does that for me. This time, three words in Portugese (Ilha De Calma) gently wash over me to leave behind a soothing feeling.

Three words that transport me from Mumbai’s seven islands of cacophony to an island of calm just 45 minutes away.

I have been going to Diu for the last 50 years when it was actually an island of calm. So the cam-paign evokes a beautiful past that has long since disappeared into the mists of time. Diu remains my beach head, for my personal anti-dote for civilisation — going into the forest on foot hoping to spot a lion or panther.

The Incredibles: The Best State Tourism Ads

(Source: A study conducted by the holiday company Kuoni-SOTC along with Nielsen on how Indians holiday)

THE ECONOMIC TIMES APRIL 06-12, 2016 4

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