Launch of www.luxurytrains.in

Pune, India, September 25, 2012 --(PR.com)-- Luxury Trains, a division of Odyssey Tours and Travels has launched India’s first and only Indian website www.luxurytrains.in featuring luxury rail holidays with 45 trains and over 125 journeys on almost all the luxury trains in the world.

Mr Nikhil Thakurdas, CEO of Odyssey Tours and Travels said, “We saw an exciting opportunity to introduce luxury trains of the world to the Indian market. High end travellers are always looking for unique & different experiences and a luxury rail journey abroad would be ideal product for this segment.” He further added, “We also see an opportunity to promote the Indian Luxury Trains to the world and attract the high end inbound tourist to India. We will be promoting the website on local search engines in the major source markets like USA, UK, Canada and emerging markets like Australia and Middle East. The website is currently being translated into 3 languages – German, Spanish and French.”

Luxury Trains by Odyssey offers the entire gamut of rail holiday experiences from options to suit the day-tripper, options for families including high speed trains which zip past towns and for those wanting to enjoy a luxurious journey for a week or more meandering through spectacular scenery taking in much of the local flavour. There is a quick search facility on the website where clients can find train options that best suit their travel requirements.

“Currently there is not a single source available for Indian travellers to research luxury train options. On http://www.luxurytrains.in/ travellers can now view detailed information on 45 luxury trains including key highlights of the journey, detailed day-to-day itineraries, information & tariffs for various cabin types, route map and more. We also feature promotional deals introduced by the luxury trains & our exclusive offers in a separate section called special offers so that visitors can easily view all the current deals,” said Nikhil.

There is a section on Rail Tours which includes itineraries with pre- and post travel arrangements like hotel packages, transfers and sightseeing. Apart from the rail tour bookings, Luxury Trains by Odyssey offers end to end travel solutions to cater to all travel arrangements like air travel, hotels, land tours, travel insurance etc. An experienced team of professionals provides the highest level of personalised service to ensure that the entire experience from planning to completion is as seamless as possible.

About Odyssey Travels
Odyssey Travels is a leading IATA accredited Travel Company, established in 1992. We specialize in planning customized holidays in India and abroad for our clients which includes air ticketing, worldwide hotel reservations, inclusive tours, sightseeing activities, visa assistance & travel insurance services. To know more visit http://www.odysseytravels.net/

Current Trends in Indian Outbound Rail Tour Segment:
For Indians, rail travel abroad has always been just a mode of travel between one city and another. Europe is by far the most popular region where Indians travel by train between two places. Rail Europe - which handles bookings of the domestic rail network of most European countries – has recorded 0.26 million passengers from India in 2011 which grew from 0.15 million in 2010, a growth of over 70%. These numbers are still small when compared to the 12 million people who travelled abroad from India in 2011 (ratio works out to a little over 2%)

There is a small but steady increase of Indian outbound travellers who are now looking at rail journey for the experience. Travellers are making specific plans to experience the fastest trains in the world like the Beijing – Shanghai Jinghu Express which covers the 1318 kms distance in 5.5 hrs or the most scenic trains in the world like the Bernia Express in Switzerland which is one of the most spectacular ways to cross the Alps or a journey on a heritage train like the Royal Scotsman in UK.

About Train Options around the World:
As Indian travellers start looking at rail journeys for the experience rather than just as a mode of travel, there are opportunities which arise to make a rail journey an integral part of the holiday. Travellers have a wide choice of options from rail journey that last a few hours to a few days and options to suit different budgets from regular trains to high end luxury trains.

Every continent has rail journeys which people travel for the experience and to explore the region. Africa has the Blue Train and Rovos Rail, Europe has the Venice Simplon Orient Express, the Al Andalus, The Glacier Express amongst many others, North America has the Rocky Mountaineer, the Royal Canadian Pacific, Australia & New Zealand have The Ghan, The Indian Pacific and the Tranz Alpine amongst other trains.

India too has several trains primarily catering to the high end traveller - the most famous Indian train, Palace on Wheels (POW) attracts luxury travellers to India from around the world. Spurred by the success of POW, other states like Karnataka have launched the Golden Chariot, Maharashtra has the Deccan Odyssey and Rajasthan has introduced a second train – the Royal Rajasthan on Wheels.