Indian Express
Express India
Screen
Loksatta
Express Cricket
Kashmir Live
Biz Publications
Indian Express |
Express India |
Screen |
Loksatta |
Express Cricket |
Kashmir Live |
Biz Publications |
|
: to a 15% discount on the standard tour price.
Hosting approximately 15.8 million visitors per year, including domestic, regional countries and international, stop overs account for nearly 20% in Amsterdam. “Since the inception of Holland Stop Overs, we have seen a growth of nearly 35-45% each year. Nearly 10% of travellers landing at the airport use the stop over facility. Last year alone, Holland experienced a tremendous growth of incoming tourists to Amsterdam. And tourist arrival from India alone rose by 34%,” says Kris Brandsma, founder and CEO, Holland Stop Overs.
www.timein-transit.com is an innovative in-transit travel site based in the tourism hub of Dubai, helping in-transit travellers with online guides to five locations (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Bahrain and Sharjah) in the fast-growing region. Each location is explored depending on how much time one has to spare on a stop over. The site features a detailed airport guide, city highlights for short-stay travellers and hand-picked choices of bars, restaurants and attractions within easy reach of the airport. This is besides helping one find travel advice from on-the-ground correspondents, book flights, hotels and rental car and post one’s tips. “Today, we know that about 1,500 people everyday have more than eight hours’ stop over in Dubai with Emirates. However, we don’t know exactly how people utilise those five to eight hours between flights. This makes it difficult to calculate the size of the market and also the nationalities of passengers,” says Alex Warren, editor in chief, Time in Transit.
Still to check-in
A problem that watchdogs feel in case of stop over tourism is that there are no tabulated figures. There is substantial data on transiting travellers, who may not have a visa to walk out of the airport in the transiting country, or find the time (five hours’ stay at the airport) too less to experience a city, or may simply prefer to do duty-free shopping at the airport. Moreover, since the people are just travelling by, not many destinations call them their tourists. “Largely, the facilities and attractions like a city tour, shopping at the flea market, etc, are towards keeping long-haul travellers amused for some hours or a night, which comes just as any other service from our side,” says Sushil Wadhwa, MD and CEO of Platinum, a company into MICE tourism. Ankur Bhatia, MD, Bird Group, agrees. Calling the in-transit tour business a ‘conditions apply’ zone, his...
Discuss this story on expressindia forums
|
|
 |
 |
 |
About Us | Contact Us | Advertisers | Site Map | Make us your homepage | Work for Us | RSS | Subscribe | Electronic Edition | Privacy Policy© 2009: The Indian Express Limited. All rights reserved throughout the world
