With the easing of lockdown guidelines and other people world wide gear up for the holiday season, extra journey firms are ramping up preparation for the anticipated spike within the journey index. The Indian journey trade is seeking to declare a big chunk of this market as one of the vital aggressive on the planet. This stems from the ingenuity of entrepreneurs who enterprise into the trade to ascertain tour and journey startups which might be geared in the direction of whole buyer satisfaction. Nevertheless, only a few startups have been in a position to seize the hearts of vacationers in Northeast India like Prasurjya Talukdar and Prantika Sarma’s Oddessemania.
There are a number of distinctive options to level out that separate Oddessemania from the remainder. “The primary distinction between us and our competitor is that each tour/trek that we offer has been executed by our group members and guides registered beneath us. So, we will guarantee the standard of the journeys and might let the shoppers have the most effective journey experiences ever. No third get together is concerned with Oddessemania. We make folks discover the offbeat locations which contain journey and push them a little bit extra to have that feeling of satisfaction. We educate them the best way to study from nature and stay a minimalist life whereas they’re on a visit with us.”
The mantra at Oddessemania is easy; buyer’s profit is a precedence. From protected and cozy journeys to money returns throughout journeys, the journey specialists at Oddessemania stay for one factor solely – to align their aims with these of their clients. Based on Prasurjya, “Our major purpose is to let everybody journey to their dream vacation spot. We simply need to let folks know you could earn and study loads from journey and the journey trade. These days, all people is drawn to backpacking and transferring round fairly than regular excursions.”
He additionally hopes to simplify journey for his clients by means of the various agendas of his startup. Prasurjya believes that lots of the difficulties folks encounter throughout their journey are the results of unfamiliarity with the vacation spot they go to. To repair this, travellers are paired with locals that reside in that specific space to information them to widespread zones they’d love to go to. For a lot of travellers, having the ability to keep a finances whereas travelling is sort of unimaginable. This has triggered folks inside the middle-class bracket to fully abstain from leisure travels and holidays.
Sharing how and why he ventured into tourism, Prasurjya says, “I’m from a middle-class household which made me make a eager remark on a number of issues. We make a variety of plans however finally drop the concept as a consequence of finances points. Whereas I used to be learning, I’d go on backpacking adventures. And I realised journey could be low cost. That’s once I determined to do one thing for these youths and households on the lookout for finances journey plans. As an alternative of fancy inns, I make them keep at native homestays the place vacationers get an opportunity to find out about one another’s cultures and traditions by sharing tales, making an attempt native cuisines and so on. This manner we’re additionally selling accountable tourism.”
The parents at Oddessemania have created a budget-friendly journey plan that applies to folks from all walks of life. They purpose to indicate that you simply don’t want deep pockets to have an satisfying tourism expertise.
As it’s broadly recognized, it takes many fingers to supply success. Though many individuals are working behind the scenes to make sure this startup runs easily, Prasurjya highlights members of his core group which have put their hearts and time collectively to advertise the journey firm. These members embody co-founder Prantika Sarma, businessman Ranjan Talukdar, enterprise advisor Rajat Kumar Gogoi, skilled rock climber and chief Nitish Deka, and advertising and marketing supervisor and content material developer Dibyajyoti Das.
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Speaking about challenges, Prasurja reveals the most important problem was steering after which the monetary half. “Once I began there was nobody to information me. I dedicated a number of errors however there was none to appropriate me. Getting help from the household was an enormous deal. I left a well-paying job as an engineer to start out one thing from scratch. Additionally, beginning up one thing means it might require funds. I confronted a variety of monetary difficulties. However I by no means gave up on my desires. I organised journeys and treks with no matter little financial savings I had. To chop prices, I made a decision to study web site growth and finally constructed one. I acquired so good at it with observe that I earned good cash by creating web sites for my pals. I used the quantity for the event of my firm.”
Regardless of its speedy development and competitiveness, the journey trade in India nonetheless leaves a lot to be desired. Prasurjya additionally factors out some methods wherein the Northeast journey trade can develop and have the ability to compete with others world wide. “The primary factor we’re missing is appropriate details about completely different locations. You see many governments and personal web sites on the market offering excursions and journey providers however they by no means present that a lot details about the journeys and the locations.
“Because of this, vacationers want to go looking by means of numerous platforms like YouTube and others and can also have to contact many individuals for affirmation. Secondly, fairly than selling the identical tour plans for Kaziranga, Majuli, Shillong, Cherrapunjee, and Tawang sightseeing, they need to take into account selling rural tourism. The world ought to find out about Kaziranga however additionally they have to know our different scenic, cultural and historic locations like Sivasagar, Jorhat, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar, Halflong and so on. Guwahati is a pit cease for each traveller coming to completely different Northeastern states however they by no means know what Guwahati has to supply. There are such a lot of waterfalls close by the town. Few kilometres away from Guwahati, we now have a river dolphin sightseeing spot and most numbers of river dolphins are discovered there however 90% of individuals don’t find out about it. The place is struggling to outlive and wishes the federal government’s consideration. The actual fact is that individuals from China, USA and different nations have come and made movies and documentaries in regards to the place however we natives usually are not conscious of it in any respect. Equally, Bongaigaon has incredible trekking spots which could be additional developed to advertise journey tourism. Dawki is a well-known place in Meghalaya however solely locals know there’s a village the place you can see greater than 30-40 dwelling root bridges and so they even educate you the way these bridges are constructed. At Sangti Valley in Arunachal Pradesh, there’re so many hidden treks that want authorities intervention for promotion.
The tourism trade should concentrate on rural and sustainable tourism. Additionally, solely about 5% of tour companies and operators are certified sufficient to supply good providers. I really feel the federal government ought to encourage tourism coaching. One might turn into a mountaineer by pursuing coaching from recognised mountaineering institutes or select to be a multilingual skilled information. Mountaineering and journey actions are nonetheless not thought-about a sport in our nation. I’d need to see it occur sometime,” he noticed.
As a B2C firm, their direct income comes from buyer reserving solely. Nevertheless lately they’ve added a brand new half whereby a consumer might e book the guides as a substitute of choosing journey plans and plan their tour. The final turnover was Rs 20 lakhs.
At Oddessemania, travellers usually are not simply assured of high quality service throughout their travels, the group goes the additional mile to again up their promise by offering an unforgettable journey expertise for his or her clients. All that’s left for this excellent journey firm is the following step. As Prasurjya says, “We’re planning to open completely different establishments concerning information coaching and different journey golf equipment in Guwahati in addition to in close by villages the place we will promote rural tourism as nicely.
“We’re arising with variations in our itineraries to make it extra enjoyable and interesting and including extra cultural excursions, in addition to selling sustainability. We’re additionally engaged on opening branches of Oddessemania and making bases in different Northeastern states and out of doors Northeast as nicely,” he provides.