Tag Archives: Ankit Rastogi

In a move that highlights its dominating position in the activities and experiences space, Cleartrip has tied up with Haryana Tourism as its exclusive online booking partner for tours and activities in the state. Cleartrip will now enable its users to easily discover and book a variety of experiences, including visits to museums, amusement parks and kids gaming zones, recreational activities, day outings to Haryana Tourism’s resorts and visits to the renowned Yadavindra Gardens (formerly Pinjore Gardens), a historic 17th century garden in Mughal architectural style. Ankit Rastogi, VP- Accommodation and Activities, Cleartrip, said, “We are glad to be the first OTA chosen by Haryana Tourism as its exclusive online booking partner for activities and tours. Haryana is a much-admired destination among weekend travellers in North India as well, who travel several miles to visit the gardens, forts, palaces and other popular sites in the state. However, the inability to plan these visits by booking them online often leads to inconvenience. The biggest benefit of this partnership will be to our customers, who will now be able to conveniently discover and book a variety of tours and activities online on a single platform.” Vikas Yadav, Managing Director, Haryana Tourism, said “The aim behind making our inventory of tours and activities available on Cleartrip is to extend greater convenience by bringing ticketing online and ensure a larger footfall of travellers to the state.”

Cleartrip has tied up with the Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) as its exclusive online booking partner for local tours and activities. Under the association, KTDC will sell all of its exclusive set of activities through the Cleartrip platform, including both existing and new inventory of conducted tours and boat trips. The partnership is also Cleartrip’s first with a government tourism board, marking a major milestone for the online travel agency. Commenting on the association, Ankit Rastogi, VP- Experiences and Accommodation, Cleartrip, said, “The biggest benefit of this tie-up will be to the travellers, who now can access and book all of KTDC’s inventory of tours and activities online on a single platform. We hope that this partnership will spur more such associations where Cleartrip partners with other government tourism promoters to make their offerings available through its online portal.” Mr Rajmohan, Marketing Manager, KTDC, commented, “Our goal is to extend greater convenience in terms of planning and booking these popular activities. We have recently launched a new set of conducted tours to highlight local experiences which best convey the state’s distinct culture and heritage. Cleartrip’s pioneering efforts in the tours and activities space made it our first choice when it came to choosing a partner to help us connect with and engage young travellers.”

Cleartrip has announced the launch of Shortlist feature to facilitate a more seamless, hassle-free booking experience for its users. Shortlists can be shared with other users to enhance planning amongst groups travelling together. Ankit Rastogi, Vice President, Hotels Cleartrip, says, “Constant improvement and evolution focused on improving the travel process make Cleartrip the platform of choice for millions of users. We’ve made it simpler, quicker and more collaborative an experience when you book hotels with Cleartrip. With Shortlist, we hope to drive 25% higher conversion to begin with and optimise it even further along the way. We will be tracking engagement and conversion from this feature to continue improving it.” The purpose of the feature is to improve how user’s research and plan for a trip by allowing them the flexibility to select amongst thousands of available hotels at their convenience, without having to start from scratch every time they resume their search. Users can, moreover, compare the location of shortlisted properties and the price on a map of the area, adding new insights to help them make their choice.

After strategic tie-ups with eight state tourism departments across India, Stayzilla gets on board with Agri Tourism Development Company Private Limited (ATDC) to promote Agri Tourism homestays. ATDC is a private organization which stands to endorse agriculture tourism to achieve income, employment and economic stability in rural communities in India. It also helps to boost a range of activities, services and amenities provided by farmers and rural people to attract urban tourists to their area, thus providing opportunity for urban people to get back to the roots. The MoU was signed between Western Region Office of Stayzilla and ATDC Pune Headquarters. Ankit Rastogi, Vice President Marketplace, Stayzilla, said “India is largely an agrarian economy and most of the festivals and culture are centered at agriculture. The real taste of Indian culture lies in the villages and adding agri-tourism to the portfolio is a logical progression. With this collaboration Stayzilla becomes the strongest proponent of experiential tourism in India. Our associations with different state governments also share the same vision towards rural tourism.” Stayzilla will collaborate with ATDC to promote agri tourism by empowering the farmers to market their homestays with the support of Stayzilla’s platform. Under this MoU, more than 300 agri tourism stays will be listed on Stayzilla to provide an enhanced experiential stays for the tourists where they can stay with the local people in the rural areas. The MoU also provides for joint workshops by Stayzilla and ATDC in which the farmers will be trained on travel technology and Agri- tourism. “The sole objective of ATDC is to promote agri tourism by all means possible and take up initiatives that works for promotion of our rural communities. Promotion …

After strategic tie ups with six state tourism departments across India, Stayzilla now gets on board with Andhra Pradesh Tourism for the joint promotion and development of homestays in the state. The MoU was signed in the presence of Ankit Rastogi, Vice President Marketplace, Stayzilla and Himanshu Shukla, IAS, Director Tourism of APT at Vijayawada. With this association, APTDC becomes the first Tourism Board to associate with a homestay aggregator in South India. Under this agreement, Stayzilla will lend its expertise to APT to conduct verification procedures and jointly boost homestays and unique stay experiences within Andhra Pradesh. This partnership will also enable verification and training of these new Homestays being developed right from the start. Stayzilla’s team in the South, headed by Stayzilla headquarters of Bangalore, will be part of the Service and Quality Assurance Committee under APT for Inspection, which includes property verification and screening. .

Stayzilla has got on board with Assam Tourism Development Corporation for the joint promotion and development of homestays in the state. The MoU was signed in the strategic presence of Ankit Rastogi, Vice President Marketplace, Stayzilla and Anurag Singh, Managing Director, Assam Tourism Development Corporation. With this association, Stayzilla becomes the first aggregator to associate with governments in the East. Under this agreement, Stayzilla will lend its expertise to Assam Tourism Development Corporation to conduct verification procedures and jointly boost homestays and unique stay experiences within Assam. ATDC as Implementation Agency for Department of Tourism, Assam will be one of the first state tourism bodies to launch a model Rural Homestay scheme providing financial incentive for development and standardization of new Homestays in Assam. This partnership will also enable verification and training of these New Homestays being developed right from the start. Stayzilla’s team in the North East, headed by Regional Office of Kolkata, will be part of the Service and Quality Assurance Committee under ATDC for Inspection which includes property verification and screening. The Tourism Board & Stayzilla will also jointly conduct educational and training sessions for registered homestays on best practices such as online usage, content management, operations and expense management. Stayzilla team will also be involved in imparting Hospitality and Skill Training to all the New Homestays under the ATDC scheme.