Sights in between flights

Jyoti Verma
Posted: Sunday, Jun 29, 2008 at 2339 hrs IST
Updated: Sunday, Jun 29, 2008 at 2339 hrs IST

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: International Airport and Singapore Airlines with Changi) to make a city trip doable before departure,” says Subhash Goyal, chairman, Stic Group.

With the realisation of huge numbers transiting by, service providers are all for a custom-made luxury experience. Depending on a traveller’s hours at the transiting city, developed destinations like Korea and Amsterdam can offer a range of packages. The places to visit could include a historic Dutch Gouda cheese factory located near the Amsterdam Schiphol airport or a tour to the demilitarised zone between South and North Korea. The locations need to be strong on infrastructure, as no traveller would want to get stuck in a jam on the first street turn outside the port. These trips work well economy-wise too, say watchdogs. “When we first promoted Nepal, we discovered that the fare to Bangkok via Kathmandu was the same as the fare between Delhi and Bangkok. So, our slogan was ‘Visit Nepal free on your way to Bangkok’ and we were able to send a few thousand passengers going to Bangkok and make them transit tourists in Nepal,” elaborates Goyal.

Economics of a transit

The logic works well at transiting locations in Europe, standard stop over locations like Dubai and tourism-friendly markets like Korea (reporting a steady 10% jump y-o-y in number of transiting passengers opting for city tours). According to Ju Min Hong, vice president, Korea Tourism, the country had 3.7 million of its transiting tourists opting for stop over tours in 2007 — up from 3.4 million recorded in 2006. “For business travellers, one is more keen to include dining and nightlife in the transit time, while a family could be interested in a theme park,” says David Leung, regional director, South and South East Asia, Hong Kong Tourism Board. The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) today helps its visitors with a dedicated in-transit guide to figure out their stop over tours. In another of its initiatives, it has tied up with InterGlobe Technology Quotient, the national distributor of global distribution system Galileo, to offer special discount vouchers of its transit tour to Indian travellers. India, being a special case with 3,17,510 arrivals recorded in 2007 contributing to a steady 70% increase over the past six years, the offer is integrated with the Galileo PNR at the time of booking the Hong Kong segment in the flight itinerary. On till December 31, Indian travellers booked via Galileo are entitled...

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