With outbound travel booming across Rajasthan, Arley Tourism is expanding its services and introducing new products to meet rising demand for luxury experiences, multi-country itineraries and niche travel segments – director Sandhya Hiteshi shares how the company is gearing up for 2026 and the trends shaping the Rajasthan travel market
Kindly share new developments in your travel agency? What are your focus areas for the upcoming new year?
We are constantly working on enhancing our services and creating unforgettable experiences for our clients as a travel agent. We have been working to offer customised travel packages for families and leisure segments. Some of these itineraries of duration eight to 10 nights combine destinations located in two countries for example Almaty and Baku or Baku and Georgia or Almaty and Bishkek. We are noticing that many of our clients are interested in combining two countries when they are travelling overseas.
Our focus areas for the upcoming new year are to strengthen our ground transportation services and offer new models of vehicles like Mercedes and luxury coaches to our guests. We also want to add more Indian restaurants to our network as food is an important criteria for the Indian outbound tourism market. Guides who can speak Hindi are also a requirement we want to expand so that the communication process improves for our non-English speaking clients. In the year 2026, we want to focus extensively on the MICE segment as non-metro cities in India are witnessing a lot of growth in businesses and have a good presence of the corporate segment interested in traveling internationally. Female group travel is another market which is growing, and we want to tap opportunities there as well.
As a travel agency based in Rajasthan, what are the travel trends you are noticing in your market?
We are seeing that for the last three years, travellers from Rajasthan are becoming more interested in exploring new destinations. Destinations like Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan are very hot destinations among people in Rajasthan. Cities like Jaipur, Udaipur, Kota and Jodhpur have clients that can spend on luxury and always book five-star branded hotels for stay and luxury vehicles for transportation. There is a growing segment of young travellers in Rajasthan who are interested in activities like adventure, gastronomy and luxury travel. Also, travellers in the state are making multiple holidays trips overseas even if for short periods. South-east Asia and the Middle East are also some other popular outbound choices.
How do you view social media’s role in influencing travel decisions of Indian outbound travellers?
In the present era, social media is playing a very important role in customers choosing outbound destinations, and the same is true in our market. Through the reels and videos on Instagram and Facebook, people, especially the younger generation, are watching the places and deciding on their wish list. As we are a B2B company we are not focusing on promotions through B2C platforms. We provide flyers, videos and photographs to our travel partners so they can do promotion on social media platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook.
We connect with our B2B travel partners through emailers and follow up with one-to-one interactions, which are very important in our business. We regularly organise fam trips for travel agents to promote various destinations. Recently, we organised two fam trips to Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
How do you see the current focus of NTOs on non-metro Indian cities?
I think that a growing number of NTOs have realised the importance of non-metro Indian cities which are a very important source of outbound travel. There are regular roadshows happening in these markets which help travel agencies to network with their international counterparts and update their knowledge too.
Going forward, how do you see the Indian outbound travel market shaping up in the next five years?
The Indian outbound travel market is expected to grow significantly in the next five years driven by increasing disposable incomes, a growing middle class and improved air connectivity. We expect an increase in demand for experiential travel as more and more Indians are seeking unique experiences, cultural immersion and adventure activities. There is going to be a rise in niche travel like special interest travel such as wellness, food and luxury. Digital platforms will become increasingly popular for planning and booking travel. I expect more expansion by budget carriers as this makes travel more affordable. The CIS countries will make further inroads in the Indian outbound tourism market thanks to their history, natural beauty and cultural richness.
