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| Students To Travel For Less. |
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| The sheer number of students going overseas for higher education has prompted many in the travel sector to put together special discounts/packages for them |
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With colleges and schools reopening after the summer vacations, July to September is a lean phase for the travel industry. The result? Most airlines and travel agencies go overboard in offering various travel discounts and freebies to lure customers. In the bargain, many of them have come up with exclusive schemes and packages that were hitherto unheard of in the travel sector. And that too, for a customer segment like students.
Why students?
With around 30,000-70,000 Indian students making a beeline for universities abroad, this three-month period now gives the travel sector a reason to smile-apart from keeping their coffers ringing. Enumerates Richa Goyal Sikri, Director (Business Development), Stic Travel Group, which represents the International Student Identity Card (ISIC) in India, "When we started discounts and travel packages for students in 1995, the mindsets of banks and travel agencies were not focussed on this segment. Most of them were not interested in offering any discounts to students as they felt they were too inconsequential. However, the last few years have seen a sudden shift in focus. With the number of students seeking admission to universities abroad increasing by the year, the industry has now woken up to the fact that they are potential clients." Says Rajan Bhatt, VP, Travellers Cheques (South Asia and ASEAN), American Express, "This is part of our focussed marketing strategy wherein we target niche segments in a bid to widen our customer base. With the number of students going overseas on the rise, they form lucrative option for us, which is why, we have come up with a discount on our travellers cheques specially, for them. Also, such discounts do not carry a risk from our side and ensure that some-if not all-do become loyal AmEx customers in the long run. We catch them young in a bid to convert them into prospective clients through the motivation we offer. "Adds Gavin Azavedo, CEO, Travelex India, "The student market is a large one. A huge number of students travel in August every year as the term starts in September. Therefore, there is a need for them to take dollars and for us to tie up with travel agencies to provide them with a one-stop facility that will help them procure foreign exchange as well as tickets."
Advantage: Student
Sudhir Menon, Head-Travel Insurance, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Limited, enumerates the advantages of insurance cover. "It is advantageous for students to buy insurance cover from India. For one, the cover starts here, while insurance sought abroad will start only after the student is enrolled in a university abroad. Second, the payment is in rupees and is about one-third the cost of what the student has to pay overseas. The saving he/she gets from buying insurance in India (in the region of Rs. 12 to 15,000) is substantial."
Whats on offer
The trend began when international institutes/ universities started targeting Indian students. Seeing the importance given to this segment by the international community, the travel industry woke up from its slumber and came up with deals specifically targeted at students. So, if you become a member of the ISIC (at a yearly fee of a measly Rs. 250), you will be entitled to discounts not only in terms of travel insurance, but you will also get a discounted interest rate of 11 per cent as against the usual 13 per cent if you take an educational loan from Citi Financial. The processing fee is one per cent as against 2.5 per cent. Benefits of the ISIC students card also include discounts across more than 50,000 outlets in the world as well as across Indian cities apart form access to Specially priced fares. For instance, the ISIC travel package fare to Europe is more than 35 per cent cheaper than the market fare and more than 40 per cent less than the cost to USA and Canada.
Planet discount
Both American Express and Travelex have announced a student waiver of commission /service charges on Travellers Cheques (TCs) (which is one per cent). For students availing of a minimum of US$ 1,000 or its equivalent, Travelex also undertakes to pay Rs. 450 as part of the refund visa charges. In such cases, students get a discount that is equivalent to the visa charge. American Express, on its part, runs a slogan contest for students who buy more than US$ 1,500 and 2,000, offering prizes ranging from return tickets to portable CD players. In the same league, ICICI Lombard has introduced an innovative Plus Plan with an objective to make "the policy university compliant." Says Menon, "The plan has been introduced as an added feature to the tailor-made Gold and Silver Plans launched earlier to cover risks that are specifically asked for by certain universities so that they can be considered as comparable policies of such a university." The ICICI insurance plan covers a two-way compassionate visit, a bail bond in case of arrest and enhanced medical benefits in addition to medical exigencies.
And last but not least is the recently launched Cholamandalam MS overseas student travel insurance. Key benefits of the product include cashless settlement of hospitalisation claims abroad and the definition of a new geographical scope-Asia Pacific-as a result of which, travel cover to, say, Australia or Singapore would become more competitive in price as against the industry practice of charging a price applicable to the European category for these destinations. The going was never so good!
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