A Study of Consumer Awareness on Indian Railways Tourism Products Ms
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A JOURNAL OF COMPOSITION THEORY ISSN : 0731-6755 A Study of Consumer Awareness on Indian Railways Tourism Products Ms. Arkaja Gupta1 Dr. Jayender Verma2 1. Assistant Professor, Research Scholar, Department of Commerce, FCBS, Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies, Faridabad 2. Associate Professor, Head, Department of Commerce, FCBS, Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies, Faridabad Abstract Travel has become an integral and important source of revenue to tourism industry. Passengers not only travel with a motive to cover distance but it has become a social status as well as source of rejuvenating oneself. Tourists experience of Indian Rail Trail witnesses earthy liveliness and grounded culture. Indian Railways has shown fastest growth in terms of technology advancement and introducing new initiatives in the market. Indian Railways not only runs passenger or cargo trains, besides that also provide leisure rail trips. Rich in furnished interiors with royal backgrounds, excellent dining option, high tech amenities in the trains, luxurious five-star stay during journey, best of cuisines are served and a comfortable journey. Along with luxurious trains, Indian Railways has also introduced semi- luxurious trains and circuits round the country are available at door step. These circuits and semi- luxuries trains provide various packages to consumers. Moreover, many consumers are not aware about these packages as they are being positioned through railway websites and railway tourism sites. The study aims to determine awareness level towards Indian Railways Tourism Products. It was observed by the study that there is a very little awareness of Indian Railway Tourism Products. There is a need for some innovative methods to create awareness among travelers to avail the tourism services extended by Indian Railways in addition to normal travel and transport services. It is required to have strong promotional schemes, heavy advertising and liberal pricing policies in order to cater more attention and increase the awareness level among people. Key Words: Indian Railways, Consumer Awareness Level, Consumer Response, Indian Railways Tourism Products Volume XII Issue IX SEPTEMBER 2019 Page No: 613 A JOURNAL OF COMPOSITION THEORY ISSN : 0731-6755 Introduction Indian Railways one of the ancient mode of transportation in the country. It contributes not only to transportation sector but is a backbone of the country and contributes to overall growth and development of the nation. The entire country is well networked with rail routes. Infrastructural and well connected transportation system of any country is a real image of development that country. It includes rail networks, developed roads, equipped domestic as well as international airports and inland waterways. As per statistical records till date there are 12 international airports in the country and facilitating smooth flow of international travels. The domestic airports are witnessed in all major cities and all capitals of the states constituting 80 airports which are equipped with all facilities, infrastructural and technological support system. In India railways is considered to be backbone of transportation and facilitates hassle free movement of millions of people on daily basis in the country. It is operated under the supervision of Government of India and is one of the largest rail networks of the world surrounded with 115000 km track over a route of 65000 km. The first Indian rail was inaugurated in the year 1853 and hit the route from Mumbai to Thane on 16th April, 1983. Indian Railways provides its services to all sections of the society. Indian Railways has a glorious history and connects social, economic, political and cultural framework. It integrates the country at one platform and is a life line to Indian economy. Indian Railways has been segregated in 16 zones and further sub-categorized in total 68 divisions. Almost around 18000 trains run on daily bases facilitating passenger travel and freight travel. Indian Railways employs more than 1.4 employees directly and many times larger the number in directly through forward and backward linkages (Government of India, 2015). As quoted by Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narender Modi in foreward of Indian Railways Lifeline of Nation (A White Paper) (2015), “Railways, perhaps along with post offices, are the only two institutions in India with a deep network which if tapped judiciously can create substantial improvements in the hinterland. Railways were always considered only as a mode of transport in our country, we want to see Railways as the backbone of India's economic development.” Indian Railways has technically equipped its system and all services for instance railways website which is set model of e-governance. Online railways services facilitates online ticket booking, tour packages, online hotel stay accommodation, tatkal booking, e-catering, air app, IRCTC e-wallets, tourism app, online bedding bookings and PNR status, query handling, updates, booking and marketing of tourism products. Indian Railways and Tourism The transportation and tourism sector are positively correlated to each other of any country. Indian Railways has remarkable contribution to tourism industry of nation. As reported in World Travel and Tourism Council report, India 2018, tourism is fastest growing and leading service industry in the world. As per reports total of 9.4% was contributed to the GDP of the country in 2017 by travel and tourism industry. Also in the year 2017, the contribution of total of 8% of employment was generated in the country. India is very rich in heritage and a cultural diversified country. Indian Railways not only is a backbone to transportation but also provide inimitable variety of tourism products to national and Volume XII Issue IX SEPTEMBER 2019 Page No: 614 A JOURNAL OF COMPOSITION THEORY ISSN : 0731-6755 international consumers. There is certain tour packages formed with the help of special trains with five star amenities and introducing royal heritage and culture of India, It provides wide variety of products which provides a royal experience while traveling to the place i.e. these trains are designed with facilities like lounges, library, dinning car, astonishing interiors, regal ambience, copious gastronomical fare, stringent security arrangements and royal services, well educated crew makes you feel as if you are in heaven and along with these trains provides haults at various cities with sightseeing. The special trains running on Indian rail tracks are: 1. Luxury Toursit Trains 2. Semi-luxurious Tourist 3. Buddist Special Train 4. Bharat darshan Train 5. Astha Circuit Trains 6. State Tirth Trains 7. Flexi-package Tourist Trains 8. Ordinary Tourist Trains 9. Ordinary Tourist Cach 10. Dedicated Tourist Coaches 11. Hill Tourist Train 12. Steam Tourist Train 13. Value added Tour Package 14. Foreign Tourist Train 15. Dessert Circuit and other circuits All these trains provide different tours with different experiences and every tours have packages designed. Luxurious trains are costliest tour packages for international tourists and national tourists covering different parts of India, Semi-luxurious trains are designed with a view to cater national market and are replica to luxurious trains with comparatively less expensive tour packages with flexible durations. Bharat darshan train, Astha circuit train, State tirth trains are running to promote religious tourism in country and are most affordable tour packages. They offer range of Rs. 800- 900 per person per day in sleeper class and Rs. 1100 per person in case of AC compartment along with dormitory stay with breakfast at every stop. Semi luxurious train provides wide range of tour packages and world class services to its consumers. The package starts from Rs. 18000/- per person and varies tier wise and tour wise accordingly in all kinds of semi luxurious trains. Literature Review The goods which are being produced by companies have the ultimate goal of being sold to end consumer. The market scenario has changed after liberalization and introduction of marketing and societal concept. Therefore, while selling any products to any type of market it is important for the marketers to study the market in advance, to adopt corrective marketing mix strategies, to give importance to stated and unstated needs of consumer, satisfaction and integrated marketing. In this research, the researcher has identified the low satisfaction level among bus service users vis-à-vis Indian Railways consumers. The researcher has concluded that irrespective of industry, today consumer satisfaction and positive attitude towards the products is at high priority. Further to improve the quality of any product total quality control needs to be studied to provide class facilities. (Shiralashetti and Hugar, 2008). Keeping in mind about Volume XII Issue IX SEPTEMBER 2019 Page No: 615 A JOURNAL OF COMPOSITION THEORY ISSN : 0731-6755 quality services, Indian Railways has witnessed lavish tourism product rage to its national and international consumers which is quite expensive. Primarily, Indian Railways introduced luxurious trains which gradually has shown dwindling demands and had to cancel their trips in 34 years. These trains shifted their strategies to revenue-share model but it has failed. Officials have stated that there is need of strong marketing efforts in case of special trains (Narayanan and Das, 2017) As stated by Kumar and Komaraiah (2014), tourism