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Interview with Vishvan Saran, Vice President at Kreeda Sports Tourism (www.kreedasports.com) and General Manager – Marketing & Infrastructure at SPT Sports Management Pvt. Ltd. Bengaluru, India
As the Indian economic landscape changes, new business opportunities continue to grow from small niche possibilities to mainstream businesses. Sportskeeda got a chance to speak to Vishvan Saran, VP at Kreeda Sports Tourism in Bengaluru to understand more about the sports tourism side of things.
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Q. Please tell us a little about Kreeda Sports Tourism and what it focuses on? Does Kreeda focus on bringing tourists from within India to various sports tourism related events or does it focus on overseas tourists coming into India?
A. Kreeda Sports Tourism was set up with the primary intention of making international sports events more accessible to more Indians. The main objectives are creating opportunity to watch major sporting events around the world such as the upcoming FIFA World Cup, The Wimbledon, F1 Races, etc. Also a fast growing market is Golf Tourism into India. A large section of international golfers wish to explore India through golf and the biggest advantage being the favourable weather to play golf all year round in India. In addition, a number of Indians are travelling to various countries for golf holidays. So our focus is on both outbound and inbound tourism.
In addition to the sports enthusiasts, we are trying to create a new market by offering regular travellers an opportunity to include sports in their itinerary while planning just a holiday. Also, educate corporates with the same offer when they incentivise their employees through international holidays.
Q. There seems to be a heavy focus on Golf in your offerings. Is that in keeping with the High Net worth Individual (HNI) segment that you are targeting?
A. Golf is one of the fastest growing sports in India currently. There has been a very significant rise in the number of golfers in India especially over the past 3 years. With the disposable income on the rise among Indians and sports taking a front seat in individual lifestyles, people are willing to take golfing holidays to countries close by such as Thailand, Vietnam, etc. But we are also targeting HNI’s with our high end “Experience Packages” for golf to St. Andrews, Scotland and other famous European destinations. Golf is not the only sport in which we offer these “Experience Packages” but in other sports also, such as football and tennis with our VIP “Experience Packages” to the FIFA World Cup and the Wimbledon.
Vishvan Saran
Q. Is this is a stand alone business or is it related to the SPT Sports Management venture?
A. Kreeda Sports is the latest vertical under SPT Sports, adding Sports Tourism to our portfolio was the next logical step for us to take to expand our reach and target the growing interest in sports.
Q. How big of a domestic market do you think sports related tourism could be? Can you provide any examples of events or locations where the civic authorities have realized that this may be a way to bring employment, prosperity to the local economy?
As we have seen that tourism in general is a growing segment both for inbound and outbound. The current market is fragmented with tour operators offering sports event packages as and when demands arise. There is no dedicated organisation which offers only ‘Sports Tourism’ packages and this is the void which Kreeda Sports Tourism seeks to bridge. The estimated market of this segment is well over Rs. 1000 cr.
The best example where of the civic authorities realisation about the employment opportunities through sports events is the Standard Chartered Marathon, Mumbai. The Maharashtra government and the local corporations support the run and in turn they have created a value proposition for a number of individuals and agencies.
Q. Do you have any existing or planned products for the average Indian middle class that you think could find a mass market or will sports tourism be a luxury for a few more years to come?
The philosophy of SPT Sports is to engage a large cross section of Indians and provide them opportunities and enable them to connect with sports in any which way possible. The same commitment has been brought in our new venture – Kreeda Sports Tourism. We have packages well below rupees one lakh, like for the English Premier League or golf in the Far Eastern countries. But we don’t want to let go the higher segment of the market. For them we have “Experience Packages”. We plan to cater to all segment of the society.
Many thanks for speaking to us.
