Prateek Mazumder on data and measurement and storytelling

Do you feel refreshed by the conversation with Amit? Enlightening. Very interesting. Well, I've been dying to get to you Pratik because you are innately in the business of taking people places. Right? But, you know, and there's been an explosion in travelling amongst your TGs. How do you think about how Mahindra enables others to expand markets? So I'll speak a little bit about my business and some data points. A place like Bali has about 40,000 branded rooms. A place like Bangkok has 60,000 branded rooms. A country like India, the size of India, has only 20,000 branded rooms. With our population of 1.4 billion, let's assume 150 million of that have the purchasing power to be able to afford 10,000, 15,000 rupee room nights.

The market in India is deeply underserved. That's point one about the category. About Mahindra holidays. Mahindra holidays was set up about 27 years back based on two basic human insights which are true to Indian society, maybe as much to the world. One, a deep sense of family belonging and bonding. Much like, you know, what you see in your dharma films. And second, a sense of wanderlust, experiential, innate desire and hunger that human beings have to explore the unknown. That was the fundamental principle basis which the founders set up this business. Our brand is all about creating magical memories and moments. It's not about that one holiday.

It's about taking those seven days and nights of holiday and the multiple hundreds of touch points that a family receives or gets when they go through that holiday. You know, and every member of the household has their own experiential journey on the holiday. And Mahindra holidays has been a pioneer. It literally pioneered the subscription economy. 27 years back, we were asking prospects to upfront pay for seven nights of holidays per year for a 25 year holiday membership. I look at it as a subscription economy, a pioneer to what Netflix is doing today. So that's our whole business model. We provide magical moments. The brand is all about discovering India. We cover India, you discover India.

So when we look at market expansion, we are providing Indians an opportunity to visit different places far off or nearby that they have never really seen. And unlock the unimaginable, untapped potential and the beauty of India, incredible India. It's a fantastic story. Beautifully, beautifully told Pratik. Now here, I want to pick up just what Amit was talking about culture. Here's a sort of provocative question. Your model is of India, by India, for India, right? And it comes out of one of the better known business groups. Could you transplant your model as is and become a tour operator in America for American customers? So there are vacation ownership companies that are there in India, that are there in the US as well.

The Marriott and the Hiltons of the world. For us to be able to create a global business, yes, there definitely is an opportunity. But we believe fundamentally the opportunity and the low hanging fruit and the market potential in India is much more. Our right to win here because of the whole Mahindra group story is far better here, given the underserved penetration in the market here. So at this point of time, we'll focus here. That being said, Mahindra holidays is also in Europe. We have a subsidiary called HCR Holiday Club Resorts, which is there in Finland as well as Sweden, right? With over 30 resorts there. OK, so, I mean, in the model and, you know, a bit like Rakesh, you know, you're working in a massive market, you know,

and you're sending people everywhere anyway. But let's just get into your sort of target group. So explosion. So not enough rooms, right? The infrastructure is poor. And I like what you're saying there, because there's no point being incredible India if you can't get a room. But in terms of the customer base and the behaviors and how you've particularly understood the behaviors, how do you see the differences between the many, many Indias and how people travel? And how particularly have you engaged with customers who may never have traveled? So 26 years back when Mahindra Holiday was set up, there was one single product, which was a 25 year membership targeting 35 to 40, 40 years old.

As we understood the market, as the market evolved, we saw that there was an opportunity for seniors. I won't say senior citizens, but people who are about to start the second innings of their career. I'm worried I'm senior. How do you define that? So people above 50. So we created a product for them, a 10 year product, a points based. We understood that just about pre-COVID, we understood that the Gen Z and the millennials were coming into the category. Disposable income was growing. We created a three year product called GoZest, which allowed them to experience what Mahindra holidays had to offer. They were obviously young couples. They wanted different kind of experience in the holidays. So we started catering to them as well.

And we then upgrade them into a longer tenure membership. So we've expanded our product portfolio. We've expanded our reach in the number of resorts. And we've expanded the channels through which we acquire these consumers. Digital is now playing a large role in acquisition of customers. That's how we look at market expansion. But are the, just understood, are the behaviors of those traveling out of MP fundamentally different to people traveling out of UP? And how do you get your head around that? As I talked about in the beginning, some of the innate human insights and the cultural insights are true. What people expect of their holidays. Yeah, this joy, the family.

The joy, the sense of family bonding, the kind of food that they want to experience and experiment with. The kind of activities they want to experience with. How it's an opportunity for the family to come together and bond. That's what the brand purpose is and that's what we aim to deliver. Well, here's a question for you. Just because you have purview of so many customers and so many markets. And it's sort of got nothing to do with the show really, but I'll ask it anyway. Where in the world are the more difficult places for Indians to travel? I think connectivity is a big problem for Indians and even that's getting solved. But getting to Latin America where it takes literally 24 hours to go at this point of time because multiple flight changes.

To me that's the only real place where Indians haven't really gone. Where do you see cultural difficulties? Not difficulties, but… So fundamentally I don't see any difficulty. You talked a little bit while about K-pop and its influence here in India. With the with the proliferation of internet, Indian consumers are highly experimentative in nature. They are wanting to explore that sense of wanderlust. They're wanting to be culturally immersed. The way you talked the way you talked about Korean. Similarly, there's been a lot of Turkish influence. People are consuming Turkish content, etc. So I think I am all we are already seeing that as the next wave and Indians traveling to Istanbul.

The incentives that the hunger and the desire is there and this internet and content is just fueling that desire. So when we look at our international expansion in terms of results that we want to proliferate and embed globally where Indians are going to, we are mapping that and sort of planning our… Yeah, and it's all ahead. We're almost on the mezzanine. Let me just, as the final thing, Pratik, let me reverse the polarity of this. When you look at host markets, that could be the UK, it could be Japan, etc. A lot of these guys invested heavily during the boom in the Chinese tourism cycle in signs in Mandarin, concierges, tax breaks, this, that and the other. What's your advice to countries that want to attract Indian travelers?

I think one of the things that countries could do is familiarize themselves with some of the Indian cultural nuances. While Indians are experimented in nature, there are certain cohorts in that, it's not one homogeneous mass, who still want to stay connected, for example, with food, for example. Understanding local culture, experiences about that particular country. The influence that Bollywood has on the Indian consumer is just huge and immense. We've seen that in Spain, what one film did, right? Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara did, and what it did for Spanish tourism. Similarly, a film did that for Australian tourism.

So, trying to sort of work with content companies here in India to sort of ensure that that country gets embedded in the Indian consciousness, that could be a way for global countries to sort of market in India. I think that's great. And for our international viewers out there, if you want to attract the Indian customer, get into the movies, get into the food. Pratik, you've been a fantastic guest. Thank you for coming on Trailblazers. Thank you so much, Jasper. I'm Jasper.