One of India’s premier tourism transport providers opens up on how quality, rather than quantity, matters in its business.
As its corporate motto “Discover the Excellence” suggests, Mann Tours India Pvt. Ltd. has earned a great deal of reputation in its almost 30 years of business. It is an undisputable force to be reckoned with in the country, catering to a variety of premium travel services in the tourism industry. Especially in the Delhi NCR region, it would be highly impossible to miss out its premium coaches in eyeball-grabbing light orange-blue livery. MOTORINDIA sat with the company’s Director, Ms. Parmjeet Mann, for a brief interaction, to catch up some action taking place in their coach rental business lately.
Mann’s coach fleet is pretty diverse, comprising of over 50 premium luxury products, including 45-seater Mercedes-Benz and Volvo, 25-seater BharatBenz and 14 / 18-seater Isuzu mini buses, along with Toyota Coaster and Mercedes Sprinter vans. Apart from these self-owned fleet, the company also hires vehicles from independent owners on contractual basis, especially in other cities, to cater to the needs of the clientele. The company’s customer base covers big-time domestic and international corporations, embassies and tour aggregators, with whom contracts are made on regular basis. “At Mann, customer satisfaction and trust are considered top priorities. Our efficient service enables us to maintain strong, long-term ties with all our clients”, says the Director.
Asked on the on-going rhythm of the business post-demonetization and in the GST regime, Ms. Parmjeet Mann said that the resultant cash crunch from late last year led to slumpy growth, although the business bounced back later. But the GST implementation is chaotic, she said, with lack of clarity on tax rates on travel services and on other services Mann is dependent on. “The tax rates heavily influence our business’ competitive pricing advantage. Therefore, we are eye-glued to the latest rate revision and upcoming announcements on GST”, she added.
So, how was the 2016-17 FY for Mann? The Director revealed that the company chased down the pre-set targets, but the period was neither so exciting nor too much to complain! The 2017-18 is better, but again not excitingly great, due to the macro-economic sloppiness.
Ms. Mann observed: “In terms of strategizing goals, Mann sticks to the practice of adopting defined annual targets, with constant expansion and consolidation of business inputs, including the fleet. The company has recently inducted Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans into its service, while another exotic product has just reached the doorstep”.
With the travel industry growing leaps and bounds, opening new avenues in the premium mass transportation services, Mann feels that people’s preferences, the younger generation in particular, are changing, with higher propensity to spend on travel and tourism. The choices before them have also proliferated over the years, while the services are more affordable too. “Yet, we try to gain an edge over independent service providers with similar products by offering better packages and value-added services, as our working is more organized. Customers are willing to pay an extra premium if the services are class-defining”, said Ms. Mann, also exhibiting a bit of caution as this industry is price conscious too. “Especially in the coach rentals, the initial investments and running costs are higher, making it arduous for us to churn out profits”, she added.
On Mann’s adoption of new technologies in their business, Ms. Parmjeet rejoiced that the entire fleet management is computerized and online-regulated, with use of exclusive telematics and connectivity systems in the vehicles for location and performance tracking. She agreed that technology is a great enabler in providing value-added services and safety back-up to her clientele.
Asked about Delhi’s efforts to curb air pollution out of automobiles and Mann’s adoption of greener technologies, the Director replied: “We, as a service provider, are equally concerned about the city’s rising pollution levels, but lack of reliable greener alternatives in the premium coach category makes us helpless. Delhi bets more on CNG, but there is hardly any CNG product in the luxury bus or van segment”.
Instead of bringing stringent regulations, policies should focus more on introduction of alternative technologies, so that the travel and tourism industry can easily adopt to become more sustainable, she added.