Nine experts, one platform

Nine travel specialists in nine off-beat regions of India have come together to offer quality solutions to agents, and named it ‘India B2B’.

HAZEL JAIN

Nine domestic tour operators who were destination experts in their right have come together to form a consortium in offer B2B solutions to the travel trade. Named ‘India B2B’, the platform was formally launched in January this year. Gopesh Sharma, CEO, Discover Gujarat, who has been chosen as the spokesperson for the new company, says, “We have known each other for a long time, as friends and as fellow tour operators who helped each other when it came to destinations that we were familiar with.” The first seed for this thought was sown in 2006 and a few of the partners were already discussing coming together. It took shape in the form of ‘East India Tour Experts’ two years ago that had only three members. As the discussions progressed, a few more people joined in and now India B2B has nine experts in nine different destinations of India plus Bhutan. The idea is to pass on a query to the person who is expert in that particular region.

“The beauty of this platform is that people can get in touch with any of is directly. There’s no profit-sharing nor any financial involvement between us. The only thing we are invested in is commitment. We have the right infrastructure in place on ground, we own our own fleet, we are destination experts, so why not come together and offer a bouquet of destinations to people who are in search for the right connect and the right solutions,” Sharma says. A lot of the ready packages are on the India B2B website but their main strength lies in customisation as per the agent requirement. “All of us have our own transport fleet in place, which means we are all invested in this. We have anything from 200 to 60 vehicles to even 10 vehicles of our own according to the size of the company, and we have been operating in our areas for more than two decades,” Sharma adds.

Initially, India B2B is promoting itself only through trade fairs such as TTF Chennai, TTF Bengaluru, IITT Mumbai, SATTE and OTM Mumbai. After that, they might try something else to connect to agents, specially in TierII and -III cities where these trade fairs are not organised, through one-on-one meetings or roadshows.

“We have the right infrastructure in place on ground, and we own our own fleet”

• Gopesh Sharma, CEO, Discover Gujarat