According to United Nations forecasts, India will overtake China as the most populous country in April 2023. An estimated 1.42 billion people live on the Indian subcontinent; the potential of inhabitants willing to travel is therefore huge. The Schilthorn Cableway has been active in the market for years, until 2016 this was always with the support of a representative directly on site. Now it is time to rely more intensively on additional support again.
Since the beginning of April, Kunal Kothari is the new right-hand man of Alan Ramsay, Head of Markets at Schilthornbahn, on a 40 per cent basis in all matters relating to the India market.
“It is a great honour for us to have been able to engage Kunal Kothari for the Schilthorn Cableway,” Ramsay is pleased to say, “he brings with him a great deal of experience and knowledge in all aspects of rail travel.”
Kunal Kothari, the 46-year-old from Mumbai completed a university degree in Travel and Tourism Industry Management at the end of the 1990s, worked for several years for the major tour operator Thomas Cook in Dubai before returning to Mumbai to work for over seven years as Regional Manager Sales & Marketing for Rail Europe India, the largest B2B distributor of train travel in Europe. In 2018, he founded his own company, KKR World, which specialises in consulting and representing select Swiss rail companies in India. Kothari’s goal with Schilthorn Cableway is to connect the mountain cableway company with the right travel agents and tour operators in India, find new marketing strategies together and then represent them in the market.
Kunal Kothari not only has a wealth of knowledge in the rail travel business, he also loves it and lives it: The father of two sons likes to use the train as a means of transport even in Mumbai, where many people voluntarily forego public transport. He is equally fond of aerial tramways and, as a big James Bond fan on top, it will probably be easy for him to bring the Schilthorn to the Indian market with a lot of heart and enthusiasm.
Schilthorn Cableway is based in Stechelberg and connects the Lauterbrunnen valley from Stechelberg with the car-free mountain villages of Gimmelwald and Mürren, continuing via Birg station to the Schilthorn summit at 2970 m.a.s.l. In front of Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, the Schilthorn region offers numerous activities for guests from all over the globe. The Schilthorn acquired international prominence through the filming of the James Bond movie “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” in 1968.
