Tourists cut out the frills

As a result, luxury cars give way to more down-to-earth MUVs and SUVs

Tourists are saying no to luxury brands like Mercedes, Audi and BMW and settling for humbler MUVs and SUVs instead.

Most operators who attended the just-concluded India International Travel Mart (IITM), a tourism and trade fair at Palace Grounds, put it down to the economic slowdown.

"Tourists no longer prefer luxury brands," said Sanjay Takkar, branch head, Apna Car Service.

"It's the small and medium cars that are generating revenue for us."

Till last year, Apna Car Service earned over 25 per cent of its total revenue from high-end car rental service.

But now, the same cars bring in only 5 per cent of the revenue.

Cost factor

The cost factor, given a scenario of paycuts, is why tourists now prefer SUVs and MUVs like the Innova, Tavera and Toyota Qualis and cars like Honda City, Corolla and Tata Indigo.

For instance, a Benz costs Rs 10,000 for eight hours with a minimum 80-km travel, an Innova costs Rs 2,100 for every 12 hours with a minimum 120-km drive.

"We have no option but to run the show with fully-loaded MUVs, SUVs and C-segment cars," added Takkar.

"Earlier, we had about 25 trips a month combining package trips on high-end cars, SUVs and C-segment cars.

This has come down to about eight trips a month. And the worst affected are high-end car owners."

Luxe in a fix

Luxury car-owners operating to and from tourist spots like Ooty, Mysore, Kodaikanal, Thekkady, Munnar and Hampi are the worst hit.

Karnataka Luxury Vehicle Owners' Association, which has about 6,000 luxury cars, would operate 25 days of the month but now has trips for only about 15 days, said association president K S Thantri.

"We had good times till last year because of the boom in Bangalore and neighbouring states. But now, we are the worst hit and some of our members have sold their vehicles as there is not enough work," he said.

The way out

Organisers of IITM feel that a trade and tourism fair will help tour operators and luxury car-owners.

"Such fairs are meant to give better visibility to those affected during recession," said Rohith Hangal. "A fair like this provides an opportunity to fight back and offers better deals for the consumer too."