Ashwini Phadnis

New Delhi , March 23

BUOYED by the growth in the Indian market, Emirates Holidays, which offers holiday packages for Emirate airline passengers, plans to open offices in various Southern cities including Chennai, Hyderabad and Kochi.

"The market in India has been growing. Since we opened our first office here in October last year, we have seen a double-digit growth in the market," Mr Jyrki Nilson, Business Development Manager (West Asia and Pacific Rim), told Business Line.

Currently, Emirate Holidays has offices only in Delhi and Mumbai, although demand for holiday packages is also coming from other cities including Ahmedabad and Pune.

During the past six months, there has been a perceptible change in the international tourist destinations as well as the amount of time that the Indian traveller seeks to spend when booking through Emirates Holidays.

"We commenced operations here close to the time the Dubai shopping festival was about to start and saw people buying packages for spending between three to five nights in Dubai. But now we are seeing people, especially those travelling to Europe and Africa, asking for packages of one to two weeks," Mr Nilson said.

The company offers holiday packages in 35 countries and to more than 100 destinations in West Asia, Europe, Asia and North America.

The global hot spots of choice among Emirate holiday seekers from India include destinations in the UK, Austria, Switzerland, France and Italy in Europe, South Africa, Mauritius, and Seychelles.

The destination and leisure management division of the Dubai-based Emirates airline, however, is not focused only on carrying Indians abroad.

The company also markets India abroad and offers the traveller a host of choices ranging from holidays in Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad to a tour of the conventional Golden Triangle.

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