Customer service: The road to success
Sucheta Nagpal, Director & CEO, TravStarz Holiday & Destinations, says that her company is all set to launch its online B2B travel portal towards the end of this financial year.
Q What is unique about the services offered by TravStarz Holiday & Destinations?
Travstarz is now five years old and our core business has been consolidation and wholesale. Whether it is query turnaround time, which we have maintained at less than 1 hour for 95% of the queries, or whether it is providing after-sale service not only to our sub-agents but also to the travellers, even at odd hours in time of need, we have always delivered to the best of our abilities.
Q
What is your key focus segment in the travel domain?
Travstarz had been conceptualised as a Consolidator and a DMC and our target segment has always been travel agents, tour operators, MICE operators and certain direct corporate clients. We provide all solutions like FIT packages, leisure group pack-
The portal will be a one-stop solution for all travel needs, including flights, hotels, sightseeing tours and will have over 200,000 hotels worldwide to choose from
ages, customised holiday packages and MICE group packages to our clients. Since I come with an experience of over 10 years in the Hotels & MICE Industry, we now handle over 10,000 passengers per year in the MICE segment alone, besides our leisure group movements. We are now looking at promoting offbeat destinations and luxury properties along with unique experiences for the niche travel segment. We are now the whole-sellers for Marriott Hotels Worldwide and promote many of their high-end JW Marriot brand properties.
Q Has rupee depreciation affected business?
With the depreciating rupee, there has been a rise in costs of foreign travels and that has surely affected the business sentiment for outbound travel. However, it has not deterred regular trav- ellers from travelling abroad. At most, it has affected the way these travellers used to travel, so maybe some people will settle for a decent 4-star property to stay at rather than a 5-star. But they have not cancelled their travel plans altogether. However, the segments that been hard hit by the rupee are the corporate companies for their regular Incentive Movement and Conferences and the student segment. However, despite the slump, we have registered a steady growth of over 30% on Y-o-Y basis.
Q What are your future plans?
Travstarz is soon launching its own Online B2B Travel Portal. We are expected to launch the same towards the end of this financial year. The portal will be a one-stop solution for all travel needs, including flights, hotels, sight-seeing tours and will have over 200,000 hotels worldwide to choose from. We are incorporating innovative features for our registered users. Besides this we shall be concentrating on developing the luxury segment and promote unique experiences to travellers, like the FIFA World Cup at Brazil that we have been promoting.