Tag Archives: Shyam Upadhyay

U&I Holidays has launched a mobile app for the end customer, enabling them to travel without their vouchers along with giving instant feedback. Shyam Upadhyay, Director, U&I Holidays, revealed, “Innovation is most important today, and every wholesaler or retailer has an online portal now. The latest addition for our portal is mobile application, to be used not by the operator but by the end user. We will start this from Bali. A guest travelling to Bali now need not carry any hard copies. He can simply download the application and have all his itinerary and vouchers on the mobile phone. At the same time, we have connected the driver and the client directly, just like in Uber or Ola cabs, allowing guests to track the location of the driver. At the same time, most of the Indian restaurants, shopping places have been marked and mapped in the application. Hence, wherever the guest is, he or she can see which is the nearby Indian restaurants or shopping area in the app.” Upadhyay further added that it is advantageous for them to get instant feedback as well. “Most important for us as a DMC is real-time feedback. If clients get convinced on tour, it’s fantastic. But if anything is wrong and he comes back to India, one can probably lose the client or bear a compensation. Now with this real-time feedback, everyday once the tour gets over, client will automatically get a pop up, and if they have a complaint they will definitely put it. That will straightway goes to the Bali office or head office and all the senior management at U&I Holidays. We have a dedicated quality control team who’s going to …

In a bid to rebuild confidence among its travel partners, U & I Holidays has revised its cancellation and refund policy. Not only is it offering a full refund or floating deposit on cancellation, it is also offering two nights free in Bali and one complimentary dinner in an Indian restaurant there for travel validity until March 31, 2018. Shyam Upadhyay, Director, U & I Holidays, says, “Over the past couple of months following the situation of Mt. Agung, we have noticed serious concerns for travel to Bali. I’m sure with these amendments, our clients will be in a position to comfort their customers and encourage them to travel to Bali. This is our way of thanking them for the continuous support and business for Bali and Malidives.” The ‘no cancellation fee’ policy is applicable in the case if volcano erupts or airport closes. Any payment/deposit will be given the option of full refund or to keep as floating deposit for future travel. In case of airport closure due to Mount Agung eruption, U & I Holidays also promises to accommodate the departing guest in a three-star hotel for two nights with one dinner at an Indian restaurant on complimentary basis for bookings closed through them.

Having grown its annual roadshow from five cities to six now, Mumbai-based U&I Holidays is keen on adding Tier-II cities from next year. Shyam Upadhyay, Director, U&I Holidays, says, “This time, we wanted to include a new city so we added Kolkata, which to our surprise was a hit. Most of the participants found good potential there. Every city got more than 100 attendees but Kolkata was at 150 which is really good for a city like that.” The six cities were Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Delhi, Ahmedabad, and Mumbai. The roadshow had 32 participants from Bali of which 31 were hotels plus one caterer. Speaking about Kolkata, Ashish Indulkar, Director, U&I Holidays, adds, “Although we have been doing some activities in Kolkata, we never ventured full-fledge into the market. We were very happy with the turnout. It is a very interesting market because there are whispers that AirAsia India is planning to launch a direct Kolkata-Bali flight via Kuala Lumpur.” Upadhyay adds that next year’s roadshow will continue to travel to six cities but a new set of cities which will include a Tier-II city like Nagpur, Jaipur or Pune. U&I Holidays sent 15,000 Indian pax to Bali last year. “In 2015, it was 12,000, and this year we are expecting bigger numbers. We are focusing more on MICE as well,” Indulkar adds. U&I has its own office in Bali and they are also a DMC for Maldives. Last year, U&I Holidays entered the wellness segment by opening Ashoka Spa outlet in Mumbai. It opened another one in Bali in December 2016. It will now focus on hotel spas in Mumbai and parts of Maharashtra and are already in talks …