TravTalk India Online Magazine
To support a resurgent business travel industry, DigiTravel Consulting (DTC) has announced an expanded global presence by adding consultants in India, Asia, the United States, as well as Canada. Jyothi Varma has been named as the Vice President for the India market.
Manas Dwivedi
Jyothi has held senior positions in organisations like Amadeus, InterGlobe, American Express, Carlson Wagon-lit, WWStay. She was the Regional Manager India and SE Asia, ACTE (Association of Corporate Travel Executives) before taking over this position.
Sharing her first reaction on her appointment, Varma sharing her expectations said, “I have almost three decades of experience in the travel and hospitality industry. I beleive my connections and experience in the industry will help expand our reach in my new role as Vice President for the India market. For me personally, the new role helps in connecting with the global market and will add value addition to my knowledge curve while learning something new and also enrich networking with international players.” US-based DigiTravel Consulting provides next-generation consulting services to the business travel industry powering the omnichannel experience.
Sharing her immediate plans and goals with the new responsibility, Varma says that they have already reached out to some of the corporates to ensure their readiness to travel and handle the new norms of travelling. “Travel is never going to be the same now. The way things are, we want to understand if corporates are ready to travel or not.How are they going to plan their travel keeping in mind safety, hygiene, sanitisation and duty of care. The goal is to identify what is the status of corporates resuming travel and what is the update in the market. We have slowly reached out to few clients and we have told them what all we are doing. The work is already in progress,” she said.
Talking about the future of business travel in India in the new-normal era, Varma says that a lot of things will change in the way corporates and business travel in managed in India.
“Till now, it was the price war which was defining factor in the market. But going further, it will not be the only deciding factor, the value of the product will be much more important. The value of the product is how much emphasis is given to hygiene, what are the things being done to take care of the clients, how resources for a company, which are the most valueable asset for a firm does not face any issue during their travel. So there will be a lot of emhasis on vaccination, wellness, health and the kind of food being served during the trip. It is going to be a huge difference in the way corprates and business travellers will travel. For corporates, if you are giving them services according to their need, they won’t mind paying extra also,” she explained.
Predicting the timeline for the full recovery of the MICE industry in India, Varma says that she personally is looking forward to consistent movement to start from the first quarter of the next financial year. “I wouldn’t be able to predict how and when. We have just peaked the second wave and we are third wave of COVID infections. Although, we have become smarter since the first wave. We have learnt a lot of things and realised the same things will not work in the second wave. So, if you ask me when the business travel is going to resume, no clear deadline,” she concluded.
