Comments
Imagine watching live Manchester United taking on Chelsea at the packed Old Trafford stadium. Add to that a concert, and a UK tour. Well that is what Premier Explore — a UK-based five star travel and luxury company — is offering the English Premiere League (EPL) fans in India.
Cashing in on the rising popularity of the EPL and the increasing demand for sports tourism, Premier Explore, which is backed by the British government, will offer bespoke, or tailor-made, holiday packages.
According to Peter Watts, Founder & Director, Premier Explore, Indian viewership of EPL stood at 155 million in 2010. “This presents us with a huge opportunity to promote sports tourism in the country. We will start with EPL and then look to include other sports like tennis and cricket,” he said.
Business plansIt’s not just 90 minutes of adrenaline charged football matches that this tour operator promises.
It intends to have add-ons such as fine dining, sight-seeing, concert passes, and so on. Packages start from £2,000-2,500; and in the luxury category it is priced upwards of £3,000.
Premier Explore began operations in 2014 (in the UK); has till May this year serviced 100-odd clients in India. Following the interest, it has now roped-in the city-based businessman Avijit Das as Director of its Indian operations and opened its first office in India, here in Kolkata.
“We are looking to double the number (sports enthusiasts) to 200 by this year. Corporate clients, apart from individual and family travellers, are a big draw,” Watts said.
Having tourists from UK visit India for watching cricket matches, or the football matches of the Indian Super League (ISL) may also be explored, he added.
Expansion avenuesApart from expanding its presence in India, Premier Explore will also look to set-up offices in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Malaysia and Singapore. Nigeria is another area where the company is exploring operations.
Football apart, plans are also afoot to having similar sports tourism packages surrounding lawn tennis (Wimbledon and ATP) and cricket.
“Our immediate focus, at least for the next six months is football, and particularly, the EPL. After that we will look at exploring tourism opportunities surrounding other sports like tennis and cricket,” he added.
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.