2022 is set to witness the rise of rural travel entrepreneurs
Travel Union, India’s first rural B2B travel tech platform, designed for the rural travel industry. As the travel industry gradually starts to pick up the pace, Travel Union hopes to build a robust travel business community in rural India. Dilip Modi, Fou
Rural tourism has gained major traction in the past few months as governments globally imposed international travel bans and COVID restrictions. While making their travel plans, many domestic tourists have shown a growing inclination to explore the rural regions of the country.
Hence, 2022 is the time for rural travel entrepreneurs to take advantage of the tourism potential. With the intervention of tech, aspiring entrepreneurs in the rural travel sector can now start their own business with effectively zero investment. This will not only open new avenues of income for these new-age travel agents but also result in greater profits and greater contribution towards the overall sector.
Modi says, “For decades, the rural travel sector has missed out on technological innovations that have transformed urban travel. 2022 might be the year that disrupts the status quo. The advent and penetration of tech will introduce some much-needed order to the otherwise unorganised sector. Rural travel agents are set to have greater control over the different elements that they have to offer. Aided by tech, they will have better access to inventory, aggregation of services, digital payment modes, etc. This will have a positive domino effect on their margins, thereby increasing their profitability, while also providing a boost to the sector as a whole.”
2022 is also going to be a transformative year for the rural traveller. With a new breed of tech-enabled travel agents coming to the fore, now rural travellers are set to experience this change. Travellers who had to go to faraway bus stops or train stations for pre-booking,
get minimum options of stay, wait in queues for hours to make payments, cancellations, and refunds, will not only be able to get these done at the tap of a button or over a phone call with one of these new-age travel agents but will also have a host of options and deals to choose from.
“Thus, in 2022, rural travel agents are set to take the lead in transforming the rural travel sector. With the assistance of technology, rural travel agents will now have tech-driven solutions for inventory, competitive prices, and direct aggregation from airlines, railways, hotels, and wholesalers. This will introduce some much-needed order and organisation in the sector,” opines Modi.