Outsourcing Travel Writing to India — or any other kind of writing for that matter

chillibreeze writer — Supriya

Have you considered outsourcing your travel writing to India?

If you search for ‘outsourcing’ or ‘off-shoring’ or ‘BPO’ on your favorite search engine, you will see that many of the resulting matches will have India mentioned in them. India has emerged as a dominant market for off-shoring services. According to NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service Companies), “the value of offshore product development exports (includes the export of software products made by Indian companies) sourced from India is estimated to have increased from USD 560 million in 2002-03 to USD 710 million in 2003-04.” These impressive figures demonstrate undoubtedly, that India is the market leader in outsourcing.

Although these statistics speak only of software off-shoring, today, services like medical and legal transcription, technical writing, content development, creative writing etc, are just a few of the wide spectrum of services being outsourced to India.

Travel writing is another area that has a lot of potential. With falling airfares and greater awareness, people are traveling like never before. This boom in travel and tourism has increased demand for travel related reviews, guides and other related literature. India offers travel magazines, journals, portals and guides the right price –value combination, for outsourcing to be a profitable and attractive option.

Reduced costs, added value

Undoubtedly, it is cost saving that drives outsourcing, but what empowers and sustains it in the long term is the quality of work. The primary reason why a large number of companies choose India for offshoring is because they get the double advantage of low costs of production complimented by a superior quality product. In fact, India ’s USP has always been high standards quality vis-à-vis its competitors. There are many factors that are collectively responsible for this success.

Workforce proficient in English

India is one of the few countries of the world with 18 official languages. Yet, for all practical purposes Indians choose to use English as the ‘unofficial official’ language. The government, the judiciary, the academia, the industry, the media, and the Indian people in their day-to day lives use English extensively. The Indian workforce can ‘think in English’; this gives them the edge over competitors who are unfamiliar with English idiom and tend to use bookish translations.

Global perspective

Unlike many countries where people are insular in their attitude to the world, Indians are aware of social, cultural and political complexities in different countries. This outlook has been shaped by numerous factors; a history replete with invasions, colonization, visits by foreign travelers and missionaries; a free and vigorous media; and India ’s active role in regional and global politics. Such awareness lends them an element of sensitivity essential to writing travel stories on foreign countries, people and cultures.

Tourism boom in India

Tourism is booming and India seems to be the flavor of the season. As a result of this there is a general heightened level of awareness, curiosity and discovery of unknown travel destinations, tourism related issues and travel trends. These catalysts will enable writers to write more enlightened, informative articles that are interesting and useful on more levels than one.

Connectivity and Infrastructure

India ’s strengths are its IT, telecom infrastructure and connectivity. Even far-flung parts of the country are well connected through telephone lines and the Internet is accessible in every city and town, even in some villages. The government has over the last few years, shown a deep commitment in developing dependable communication infrastructure, sources of uninterrupted power supply, road and transport facilities. This has facilitated seamless communication between overseas client companies and their service providers in India , across time zones and geographical distances.

Outsourcing to India– the growing trend

The IT and BPO sectors are major foreign exchange earners and therefore an integral part of the government’s economic policies. The success of these industries has paved the way for other service providers to enter the outsourcing market to compete with companies around the world. Content development is emerging as a market with tremendous potential. The Internet has emerged as the new battleground for travel and tour companies vying to display their best rates and packages to a global audience. As a direct result of this competition, demand for original travel related content will rise dramatically. Outsourcing travel writing to India will be the most effective way of meeting this demand while incurring minimum cost.

Better connectivity, Internet and telecom technologies have made the world smaller. Economies of countries share a symbiotic relationship and specialization is the mantra for success. Clients have the facility of choosing the best service providers across geographical limits. This is the opportunity for travel companies, publications and portals to tap India ’s skilled human resource to gain a competitive advantage.

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—About our writer: Supriya Kutty is a freelance writer specialising in travel and lifestyle writing. She has also garnered experience in writing extensively about the IT industry.