THESE days, Ramesh Travel's general manager Ram K. Samtani is chasing mice.

The 42-year-old hopes it could lead him to his cheese. Mr Samtani is steering his family's travel agency into the lucrative Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (Mice) market, in a bid to stay ahead of his competition.

The firm expanded from 25 to 30 staff last July to aggressively woo Mice tourists and corporations which hold big events here, including an upcoming regional jewellery exhibition in May.

Sales revenue at Ramesh held steady at $25 million last year from the previous year. However, as global tourism dipped amid the deepening recession, sales fell by up to 15 per cent in January.

Mr Samtani, an A-level certificate holder, took over the reins from his father Kishinchand N. Samtani in 1992.

The latter started Ramesh Travel in 1961 as a one-man outfit operating out of a 150 sq ft office along High Street, servicing mainly merchant travel.

It has since grown, occupying three offices in Peninsula Plaza and Peninsula Shopping Centre and employing 30 people.

In 2005, it began offering Mice services, covering everything from airfares to accommodation, food and transport and event-related needs for clients, mostly from the Indian sub-continent and the Middle East.

The company also promotes permanent local shows like the Ultimate Magic Show at The Arena in Clarke Quay to draw attention to its inbound Mice services.

'Mice is an area of business that most organisations in the travel industry do not have expertise in.

'There is room for growth, and so many opportunities to tap into,' says Mr Samtani.

Four out of five of Mr Kishinchand's children, including corporate division manager Champa, 40, and product development manager Mansha, 44, grew up helping in the family business, which has weathered three recessions so far.

The Samtani family says the company has been able to respond quickly to changing market conditions because it is a flat organisation, with high trust and low red tape.

Mr Samtani says: 'It is easier to sit down and talk when we are family.'

During the Sars epidemic in 2003, this helped it to report revenue losses of only 20 per cent, when other agencies suffered losses of up to 80 per cent.

One strategy it devised then: temporary across-the-board pay cuts of 20 per cent and renewed focus on clients still travelling in unaffected areas.

Now with a more diversified business strategy, the agency is confident that the contribution made by Mice clients will grow from 8 per cent of its overall revenue, to 15 per cent this year.

Mr Samtani hopes that these increased takings will help buffer the company's 10 to 15 per cent drop in sales revenue across the business in first two months of this year.

'We see a lot of potential in Mice because it has many more components other than just travel, which means there are more areas to generate revenue from.

'It all comes to staying relevant, increasing productivity and efficiency,' he says.

CASSANDRA CHEW

This article was first published in The Straits Times.