Disha Shah Ghosh - Mumbai FCM Travel India is bullish about prospects of business travel from Southeast Asia, Greater China and its youngest source market of Japan. Sunny Sodhi, Managing Director, FCM Travel India spoke to Disha Shah Ghosh about the MICE segments driving growth, and their focus areas.
Q. In terms of global pecking order as well as its position in the APAC region, where does India rank as a source market for business travel?
A. India is the 9th largest market in the world based on business travel spending. It is the 4th largest market in the Asia Pacific region, representing 5.7 per cent of business travel spend in the region.
Q. What has been the growth of the business travel segment in India during 2023, and your forecast for 2024?
A. FCM Travel India has seen an overall business growth of more than 20 per cent in 2023 compared to 2019. FCM India’s Meetings & Events revenue has also doubled. With India’s GDP estimated to grow at 6.8 per cent in 2024, we expect a robust year ahead.
Q. Which vertical of the MICE segment is driving this growth of business travel from India?
A. Meetings in 2023 had an exponential growth of more than 300 per cent. We have also seen a 30 per cent increase in requests for incentive trips which are making a comeback. Also known as employee reward programmes, incentive trips are used to boost employee engagement and productivity.
Q. For FCM Travel, besides India which are the top 5 key priority markets in Asia?
A. Southeast Asia, Greater China and Japan are priority markets for FCM Travel. Asia has continued to outperform with strong performances across Southeast Asia and the re-opening of China. Japan is our youngest market, and it is an exciting and dynamic market for business travel as it is the 4th leading business tourism market based on total travel spending.
Q. What is your strategy to drive the business travel market in India?
A. There are several strategies in place. We have heavily invested in technology and recently announced our corporate AI Centre of Excellence which has seen new features added to our suite of products already available to improve the customer experience and increase our operational productivity.
Aside from technology, we’ve also been working tirelessly towards clear and consistent strategies that have been successfully executed globally, with these strategies initially focusing on ‘Grow to Win’, but now also include productive operations.
We are also investing in FCM Meetings & Events which has just announced the launch of FCM Venue Finder, a platform that revolutionises the booking process for meetings and group hotel accommodations within the MICE industry.
Q. What has been your revenue growth in 2023?
A. FCM Travel India’s revenue has grown by more than 20 per cent as compared to 2019.
