Despite visa booking delays and traffic jams, Indians traveled in droves to their favorite European destinations like London, Switzerland, France and Italy last year.
India will become Rail Europe’s second-largest market in 2023 for the first time in Rail Europe’s 90-year history, Björn Bender, president and CEO of the rail ticketing company, told ET in an interview. Its largest market was the United States.
Rail Europe sold around 5 million train tickets worldwide last year to European destinations. About 500,000 of those were sold in India, Bender said. Last year, the company’s revenue increased 60% worldwide, he added.
“India has always been one of the top five or six markets. But now it has moved to number two. China, Japan and some other markets have been much slower to recover. We are making further investments through our local team and travel agents to expand our footprint here,” he said.
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“India was about a year ahead of the rest of the world in terms of pre-COVID-19 recovery in 2022. Last year, India was 11% ahead of 2019 levels in Rail Europe operations. exceeded,” he added.
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Rail Europe claims to be the reference brand for rail bookings in Europe and has B2C partners in India such as MakeMyTrip, Thomas Cook and Swisstours, while its B2B partners include TBO Ltd and Otilla. Its product catalog covers 200 railway companies such as SNCF, SBB, Eurostar, Trenitalia, Italo, DB, Renfe, ÖBB, SNCB, NS, OUIGO Spain, National Railways and rail passes including Swiss Travel Pass and Eurail Pass. Focused. Bender said that in India, both B2C and B2B channels are growing at the same pace. “India is expected to have a CAGR of at least 20% over the next few years. We are talking about a European rail industry worth 70 billion euros a year,” he said. “About €1 billion worth of tickets are probably sold outside Europe and this amount is increasing significantly. We want to maintain our market share in non-European markets and grow with markets such as India. “I’m thinking about it,” he added.
Bender said countries like Switzerland have worked hard and invested resources in the last year to ease visa issues for Indian travelers.
“Indians love Switzerland. London, France and parts of Italy remain the markets generating the highest demand for train tickets from India,” he added.
