Disha Shah Ghosh - Mumbai Having recently taken over as Business Head-Sales for India at Sharaf Travel Group, Leena Brahme’s focus lies in promoting the MSC brand in India, and growing the of Pegasus Airlines and DrukAir Holidays Bhutan line of businesses. She spoke to Disha Shah Ghosh about her new role and the possibilities of hosting large groups on the MSC ships.
Q. Enumerate on your new role at Sharaf Travel.
My role as Business Head Sales-India entails and encourages me to increase business on MSC Cruises as the core of Sharaf Travel India. MSC offers weekend getaways to full-fledged family vacations – a world of discovery is all to experience. From 23 ships across and in the fleet of MSC sailing into 250 most sought-after ports, MSC ticks boxes for multi-generational travel. My new role also extends to Pegasus Airlines as Sharaf Travel is their exclusive GSA in India. Pegasus has been flying for 20 years and is Turkey’s most established private airline. This exclusivity adds a nice feather in the cap to have offerings for our B2B partners.
The newest product in the kitty is DrukAir Holidays Bhutan! This is exciting as well as challenging for us to foray into land-based holiday offerings featuring the most premium destination. DrukAir Holidays will offer Premium and Luxury packages which also will be customisable.
Q. Where does India rank as a source market for Sharaf Travel? What is your vision to grow this opportunity further?
Sharaf Travel India has seen over 35% year on year growth in passenger numbers. For MSC Cruises, India is fly cruise market, and we are amazed to see that guests are booking long-haul sailings for 07 nights just as we see increase in demand for 03/04 and 05 nights too.
The uptick we see is corporates looking to book at least 6 months in advance. Taking longer sailings for e.g.: Ex Copenhagen, Barcelona, Rome, Piraeus, Naples, Dubai and so many more options to board from we see this ride as our opportunity to grow. Our venues onboard are not just classy but so large for all size corporates looking to do their events. We believe in offering a venue equipped with all AV’s without charges. This has helped us in creating that space of indulgence which is not worrying on the pocket for the end guests. Only the right offers/discounts will keep us engaged with the trade to make the noise on the B2B front. On the B2C front, we will step up on creating good content for end guests to latch on enough to make the mark to ask for MSC Cruises.
Q. Which are your three areas of focus with this role?
A. Sales force strengthening, strategic clarity regarding all the three brands, and a focus to on move ahead with learning which will help Sharaf Travel to strengthen its foothold better, is my key responsibility.
Q. India is an expanding market for outbound travel, and the traveller is spoilt for choice with newer destinations, products and experiences. In that context, how are you looking at growing the fly-cruise market?
MSC’s fleet having 23 ships across is a synonym to being spoilt for a choice! Fly cruise market with partnerships of right stake holders like NTOs/airlines etc., will surely boost a better know how for fly cruise advantage.
Q. What is your strategy to engage with the travel trade in India, offline and online?
The travel trade is moving leaps and bounds with their digital footprints. We will do our best to channelise that medium, engage through posts and visuals so that they are well equipped to convince their guests that the buying they are looking to happen is a safest choice of vacation. Offline, we will continue to meet and greet our TA partners as need to showcase our ships for them to gain strength in the brand.
Q. Any plans of MSC making India as a port of call for your ships?
Never say Never! And we believe MSC will venture into Indian waters.
Q. Which are some of the popular sailings of MSC for Indians? How are you engaging with international tourism boards?
The popular choice of sailings always has remained from Mediterranean and continues to be. New sailings that are garnering the attention are from Bahamas as our newest and large ships are plying in those regions. Another popular sailing port is Copenhagen covering Norwegian Fjords. Best of what MSC is offers are Mediterranean sailings in winter. From October all the way up to January, the possibilities of sailing from Valencia, Greece, Izmir (Turkey) and newest Tunisia are popular choices. We are proud to be one-of-its-kind offering newer explorations with MSC.
