Tag Archives: Co-founder

Travkart, a unit of Holidays by Sahibji, has partnered with franchise business consulting company Sparkleminds to help with its expansion plans in India. As part of the collaboration, Travkart will offer franchising opportunities to travel agents in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, while Sparkleminds will provide them with end-to-end assistance in establishing and managing the franchise. Through this partnership, Travkart aims to create franchises pan-India with initial focus on North and East India and hopes to create 4 franchises by the next quarter and 100 franchises by 2020. A micro website will be created for each franchisee/travel agent to ensure differentiation, flexibility and affordable pricing based on the region of operation. In addition, Travkart will handle the digital marketing and social media management for its franchisees, creating a separate Facebook page for each city to help travel agents connect and interact with locals. All travel agents need to do to apply for a Travkart franchise is fill and submit the application form online on the Travkart website. Once they are selected as a franchisee, they will receive comprehensive assistance through the franchising process which would include step-by-step franchise management training to local partners by a qualified franchise manager. Sparkleminds will further assist Travkart to build the support systems that these travel agents franchises would need and help build trust among regional travel agents as well as customers. Commenting on the partnership and program launch, Manheer Singh Sethi, Co-founder, Travkart.com, said, “2017 will be a very important year for Travkart in terms of increasing market penetration. Our focus is primarily on expanding to Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities in North and East India in the first phase after which we will look at …

Airbnb has officially launched its new platform Trips in New Delhi, adding 15 bookable local experiences to the thousands of homes available to stay in. Trips is a way to experience a different side of the city, immersing themselves in communities through the eyes of locals. For cities, it can help to diversify tourism away from busy city centers. It also allows local people to participate and benefit from tourism by sharing their interests and passions, while enabling them to make a little extra money. Brian Chesky, Co-Founder, CEO and Head of Community of Airbnb, said, “Trips is the most significant development in the history of Airbnb. We’re moving beyond just the home, bringing together where you stay, what you do and the people you meet all in one place.  I’m excited to launch India Trips as we’ve handpicked unique experiences, designed and led by locals, to reflect the diversity and variety of the city.” Launched in November 2016, Airbnb Trips currently has over 800 active Experiences available, with bookers from over 73 different countries giving 91 per cent of Experience bookings a 5-star rating.

Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) was inaugurated on January 20, 2016, at Hotel Centre Point, Nagpur in the presence of Satinder S. Ahuja, Honorary Counsul, Consulate of Georgia, Marzban Antia, Vice President, TAAI, Ankush Nijhawan, MD, Nijhawan Group, and SanJeet, Vice Chairman, PATA India and MD, DDP Group, among other dignitaries. Harmandeep Singh Anand, Co-founder, GPS and MD, Jagsons Travels, informed that 108 exhibitors showcased their various products and offerings for the Tier II and Tier III markets. The event was attended by over 600 buyers. “If we see the multiplier effect, then approximately for 108 exhibitors and 1,000 buyers, 100,000 meetings can be done. This is a huge number. We have witnessed 99 per cent success in terms of exchange of e-cards.” The GPS mobile application launched for the 5th edition has been a huge success, Anand informed adding that the application is undergoing constant upgrade. He informed that to facilitate live feed and news, TravTalk will be integrated in the application. In the upcoming events, video conferencing facilities will also be made available to the attendees. “The buyers and exhibitors can maintain the database and keep in touch even after the show. All data can be found at one marketplace which will bring together the big and small service providers as well as all kinds of travel agents and tour operators in the Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Vidarbha a region” he added. He further informed that five per cent of the profit from GPS this year will be contributed to Dr. Amit Samarth, a doctor by profession but a sports and fitness promoter in India, in order to fund his endeavour to compete in race across America challenge in 2017. …

Travkart, the travel service portal by Holidays bySahibji has launched its mobile app. The 5.08 MB app will allow travellers to choose fixed departure packages for all air, land and cruise packages from the live inventory with instant confirmations as well as to book activities and tours on the go. The app will also offer a host of seamless payment options making the mobile booking experience all the more enjoyable. In addition, users can refer the app to friends on social platforms and earn discounts and cashback. Manheer Singh, Co-founder, Travkart.com said, “We endeavor to make everyone’s travel dreams come true by creating the finest experiences for them. Our app is here to make beautiful holidays more accessible than ever before, at irresistible prices. Our simple and user-friendly processes are designed keeping in mind the comfort and convenience of the customer, whereas the unique features like booking themed holidays, viewing booking details, making payments online via credit points and instant confirmations promise to make the entire experience with Travkart simply delightful.”

Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) has appointed Ankush Nijhawan, MD of Nijhawan Group, as its Executive Director with immediate effect. Talking about this development, Harmandeep Singh Anand, Co-founder, GPS, said, “We are pleased to announce the appointment of Ankush Nijhawan as Executive Director of GPS and I am sure this move will help us in making GPS one of the leading travel shows in India in Tier-II & III market space.” Anand added that his expertise will further assist in elevating GPS’ position and achieve its objective to educate and empower the travel fraternity in Tier-II and III markets. “GPS is all about innovation, involvement, engagement and excelling to reach acommon goal, which is to explore and unleash the tourism potential that lies in the Tier II & Tier III cities of India. Commenting on his appointment, Nijhawan said, “I am happy to be on board with GPS and our collaborative efforts as a team will further strengthen GPS to establish it as India’s only B2B travel show for the Secondary markets of recognition. We will offer our expertise in bringing more number of quality buyers to GPS as there is a new generation of travellers in Tier-II and III cities and educating and reaching out to travel trade in these markets become important. With our agent network, we are confident that, we will achieve in getting the right buyers to the show. Also with our international relationship and exposure, we are confident in influencing global exhibitors to participate in GPS. Anand says, “For GPS Nagpur(scheduled for January 19 to 21, 2017), the first event for the GPS 2017 calendar, nearly 70% of exhibition space has been sold with confirmations from …

Harmandeep Singh Anand, Co-founder, Global Panorama Showcase (GPS), has announced dates for the fifth edition of the B2B travel event. It will start with Nagpur from January 19-21, 2017, and then go on to other cities starting from July and through August 2017. He said, “The fourth edition of GPS Nagpur was extremely successful and registered an increase in visitor footfalls from Central India. The event was followed by four new shows into the portfolio namely: GPS Ahmedabad, GPS Chandigarh, GPS Kolkata and GPS Coimbatore. GPS 2016 saw a combined unique travel trade visitor registration of over 3,000 people, firmly cementing GPS as a premier B2B travel event to reckon with for the Tier II and Tier III cities of India. GPS 2017 will take place in six cities namely: Nagpur (January 19-21), Ahmedabad (July 13-15), Chandigarh (July 20-22), Kolkata (July 27-29), Kochi (August 3-5) and Pune (August 10-12). One day will be dedicated to learnings and workshops, alongside the business meetings that will take place over the three days. Raju Akolkar, CEO, GPS, adds, “For the Nagpur edition, we will launch Voluntourism packages as we have identified a few NGOs in the region. This will also help travel agents put forth an interesting tour product for the region, that will include wildlife and community service together with local sightseeing. We will also get a local travel industry expert to speak and highlight the tourism products that available in the region and how to make it available to the industry and also to throw light about the regions traveller behavior in the context of domestic as well as outbound tourism.” Madhu Saliankar, Sales & Marketing Director, Entreps, adds, “Tourism is a …

Bangalore-based brand of budget hotels, Treebo Hotels, is paying homage to the Indian National Olympic Squad participating at Rio 2016 by offering each athlete free annual vacations for lifetime at any of the 125 Treebo hotels across the country. Commenting on the offer, Rahul Chaudhary, co-founder, Treebo Hotels said, “Our athletes have been training hard for the Olympics for months now, and we felt a strong need to do something to reward their hard work. Each of them deserves a vacation, and we couldn’t think of a better way of expressing our support than offering them free stays at any of our properties across the country. We have written a letter to the Indian Olympic Association about this, and look forward to hosting our athletes”. As a part of the initiative, each of the 120 athletes is eligible for five-free room nights every year for their vacations for the next 30 years. Not only is Treebo giving free annual vacations to the Olympics team, they are also offering a flat 30% discount at any of their hotels to all athletes in the country, young or old, for any sports-related travel.

The last leg of Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) kicked off in Coimbatore with 50 exhibitors and 130 hosted buyers. Harmandeep Singh Anand, Co-founder, GPS, said, “We have a total of 50 exhibitors and expect 250 buyers to attend. We are hosting 130 buyers and so far the response has been very good. The informative sessions that were held yesterday received a strong response where over 130 attendees were present.” Hanneli Slabber, Country Manager-India, South Africa Tourism inaugurated the Coimbatore edition along with Anand and Madhu Saliankar, Director, GPS, at Le Meridien, Coimbatore.

About 250 agents and in total 550 people attended Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) Kolkata just on Day 1, culminating in 9000+ meetings over the two days. Harmandeep Singh Anand, Co-founder, GPS, said, “We received an overwhelming response from all states around. We had agents from Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha. This region has a huge potential and is untapped till now. Through GPS our exhibitors were able to meet agents from this region whom they generally don’t get to meet.” He added that the Kolkata edition saw 700-750 attendees both the days and close to 9000 meetings happened between the buyers and exhibitors over the two days.

The Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) Nagpur edition will be held from January 19-21, 2017. This was announced by Harmandeep Singh Anand, Co-founder, GPS, during the second and final day of GPS Kolkata. Anand said, “We’ve got an overwhelming response from all the regions that GPS has covered. Next year we will start with Nagpur edition from January 19-21. We will invite close to 200 agents, i.e. approximately 50 agents from each region. We will continue to have GPS at all the other cities where we had this year.” Anand also revealed that GPS will add two more cities to its itinerary next year. “We will try to add two more cities next year which have great tourism potential. But we are yet to decide on that,” he said.