Over the past few years, this industry has established itself as a key driver of economic growth. It’s a vital source of foreign exchange and enhances the earning capability of the local communities that witness a surge in tourism. Hence, government is also contributing in promoting the tourism and state governments are expending a handsome share in advertising tourism.
Kapil Goswamy has been working in the conventional offline travel and tourism industry for last 30 years at Trans India Holidays Group.Increase in penetration of internet has brought ecommerce revolution in India and hence after managing a company which has staff strength of almost 100 full time personnel, and annual revenues exceeding Rs 100 crore, Goswamy initiated Big Breaks last year.
Speaking about the idea behind Big Breaks, Goswamy said, “A lack of personalized planning and detailing is something that travellers often find lacking. They have to adapt and adjust their plans according to the tour packages offered by the travel operators, rather than the other way round. This prompted us to start BigBreaks, an online travel agency that promises to personalize your tours to the last detail. We offer highly flexible tour packages that can be moulded according to requirements of the clients.”
The competition
The competition is really very tough in this space. To strengthen its presence, the online travel industry in India is constantly re-inventing itself. Product offerings and services are being continuously made more attractive in a bid to ensure that a customer does not depend on any other means for planning his/her travel.
“The competition might be cut-throat but we have learnt from the mistakes of the others. We found that OTA customers complain of lack of flexibility in product offerings, poor responses from Customer Service teams, slow and tedious refund processes, among a host of other problems. We tried to make sure our services do not leave such voids”, expressed Goswamy.
The success of online portals has also forced many travel companies to create an online presence to retain their viability in the travel market. This further spurs the online travel portals to maintain their competitive edge and come up with innovative ways to retain their customer base.
The mechanism
Goswamy believes that difference in the way customers book their travel comes from the difference in which one offer the services. In case of usual OTAs travellers enquire about their tour packages for a required destination and normally modify their plans to meet the standardized packages offered by agencies.
“In our case, travellers dictate to us what they want and we make it happen. In a way we do not sell travel objectively like other agencies do, we materialize the travel dreams of the customers. Objectively like other agencies do, we materialize the travel dreams of the customers”, opined Goswamy.
BigBreaks is a travel company adopting the latest internet technologies to give its clients the advantages of lower costs, wider variety and the convenience of 24 x 7 bookings, costs, choice and convenience.
Big Breaks has around 10000 registered users and 25000 Facebook followers. Goswany informed that the registration list is increasing by an average of 100 to 150 users daily, and it’s getting a little over 1000 visitors on the site daily. Its mobile apps are on the final stages of testing and would be launched within the next few weeks.
“We have found, that while clients are very happy researching and getting information online about holiday packages and destinations, they are still keen to transact with a human being at the other end, talk to someone who knows the destination, take first hand advice, and then only press the pay now button,” added Goswamy.
Team Big Breaks
A team of 20, managing the day to day operations led by 3 HODs, one each for Air product, International Holiday product and Domestic Holiday product. These 3 HODs in turn report in to Goswamy, but are completely responsible for their own verticals.
Future plans
Big Breaks’s current focus is building its client base by word of mouth and advertising mainly on digital media. Thus, there are no plans for merger and acquisition at the moment. The venture has begun as a B2C Portal and Goswamy informed that they will be soon launching B2B services as well, followed by its Android and IOS Mobile apps.
“Currently focused in Delhi and NCR area, Big Breaks now plans to have a pan India presence in the coming years. Also, Big Breaks plans to add more products into its portfolio in the near future, such as National and International Railways, Cruises, Travel Insurance etc”, concluded Goswamy.
