There is a certain ‘romance’ that one associates with rail travel and nowhere is this felt more profoundly than on board the trains of Rail Europe, which, are indeed the best way to experience the enchanting continent of Europe.
Whether your idea of romance is zipping across on any of the high speed trains like the TGV, Eurostar or taking in the sights at a leisurely pace on board scenic trains - you could now book your dream Rail Europe journey from the comfort of your home on Rail Europe‘s exclusive India Centric website – www.raileurope.co.in
The entire fulfilment of the bookings received on the website are managed by Rail Europe India Pvt. Limited, the fully owned Indian subsidiary of Rail Europe 4A, the European Railways owned world leader in distribution of European rail products. Besides servicing the India centric website, the Indian Subsidiary also fulfils the orders received on Rail Europe 4A’s website www.raileurope-world.com for the rest of the world markets.
On www.raileurope.co.in, Indian Travellers can now browse though information, check train schedules and also book European Rail products including the Eurail Pass, the popular Swiss pass and point to point tickets including those of popular high speed trains such as the Eurostar, TGV etc.
Says Pierre-Stephane Austi, CEO of Rail Europe 4A: “India is indeed a key market and we believe that the market potential is a lot more than our current business quantum of 12 million Euros per annum. Though the percentage of business quantum from India for Rail Europe, compared to our total outlay, is small, it is an important and fast emerging market placed 4th amongst the world markets outside of Europe & North America!
We also believe that India is an ideal hub in the entire region and our India subsidiary is the first fully owned venture of Rail Europe 4A outside of Europe! This goes to show the importance of India in Rail Europe’s scheme of things” he added.
Ms Florence Pasquier, Sales Director -Asia & Australia, further elaborated: “Our strategy behind launching the website is to augment and complement our existing and established distribution network of travel agents who are still actively promoting and distributing our products and are the primary contributors to our current business quantum with over 90% of business coming through them.
She adds, “On our website, travellers predominantly opt for “point to point tickets” on various sectors and are looking beyond “Eurail Pass”. With the website, as envisioned, we are also reaching out to the business travellers as High Speed Trains are the most comfortable and convenient way to connect from city centre to city centre. Now, wonder for sectors where journey times are less than 4 hours, European trains enjoy over 70% market share.”
The website, besides being a informative site and convenient booking platform, offers competitive rates, payable in Indian Rupees (by Credit Card) online and also provides other facilities such as interactive maps which make planning a Rail Europe Holiday easier.
In keeping with its web expansion plans, Rail Europe has introduced a unique online game – “Rail Racer”. Available in 4 languages -English, Japanese, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese- Rail Europe's Rail Racer is a world premiere. Not only because people all across the globe will be able to play the same game, at the same time and in different countries and languages, but also because of its conception:
numerous preferred partners have indeed been associated to make Rail Europe's Rail Racer a reality - TGV, the French high speed train, Burgundy Region and Accor Hospitality, world renowned hotel group.
With an objective of making European Rail travel more visible for travellers across the world including the Indian traveller, Rail Racer incites them to play and compete with other web surfers from other countries such as Australia, Japan, Brazil to quote but a few. The Grand Prize of one whole month of free trip in Europe that includes transport by rail + hotel awaits the winner of Rail Racer online game
Want to see more? Just log on to www.raileurope-worldgame.com to enjoy the thrill of this unique rail racing experience!
“This worldwide operation will be instrumental in further developing Rail Europe's already strong presence on the web. It is the opportunity to create buzz around our company, our products and our partners and represents a major stake in the implementation of our CRM strategy” said Pierre-Stéphane Austi.
Looking beyond its European Rail identity, Rail Europe is contemplating adding train journey options across the world on its booking system. Mr Pierre-Stephane Austi said “Our widespread distribution network that spans accredited agents and our websites, both country specific and our www.raileurope-world.com that span over 50 countries, is a great appeal for rail product providers around the world.
We are already distributing Amtrak and soon have a few more select rail products across the world including select luxury trains from India that would be integrated in to our booking system and thus accessible to our entire distribution. We are really excited with this initiative and have a dialogue on with the Indian Railway authorities.”
