TravTalk India Online Magazine
Reaching the milestone of processing 200 million visa applications globally since its inception, VFS Global is increasing its outreach to travel partners for process-related information to ensure they are well-equipped.
Manas Dwivedi
Q. What are your thoughts on achieving this milestone?
This milestone is the result of the continued faith and sup- port of our customers, client governments and travel trade partners, and also a testimony to the rising number of travellers. It took 14 years to cross the first 100 million and just four years to cross the next 100 million, and it is indicative of the growth in travel across the globe.
In the last decade, we grew from 25 governments to 63 clients’ governments, opened 3117 centres, and increased our global footprint to 147 countries
Q. How has this journey of growth and evolution been?
The journey of VFS Global started in India with one visa application centre in Mumbai, in 2001. Since then we have witnessed steady growth in terms of client governments, visa application centres and our customer base.
More specifically, in the last decade, we grew from 25 governments to 63 clients’ governments, opened 3117 application centres, and increased our global footprint to 147 countries.
Breakthrough technology and customercentric innovations have held us in good stead. In the last decade or so, we saw some interesting innovations that have changed the way we process visas, be it joint visa application centres, mobile biometric solutions, e-visa services or even the first-ever visa services chatbot, ViVa!
These services were created keeping the requirements of the customers and governments in mind. Personalisation and convenience are the key elements of any service industry today and our optional additional services also evolved accordingly to offer solutions such as Premium Lounge, Priority & Super Priority Visa for urgent travel for UK visas, Prime Time to provide flexibility to the time-bound customer, and so on.
Q. What changes have you witnessed in travel from India?
Without a doubt, Indians contribute extensively to the rising number of international travellers. In fact, according to UNWTO, Indians will account for 50 million outbound tourists by 2020. This is a jump from 8 million Indian outbound travellers a decade ago. There are several reasons that tie back to this increasing trend. One of them being Indians opting for several short-haul destinations in a year as opposed to one long haul destination. Indians exploring newer destinations also supplement this trend of rising numbers.
Q. What kind of growth have you seen from India, especially from Tier-II and III markets?
International travel from India’s Tier-II and III markets has clearly increased. Our network of centres, spread across 17 always been an integral part of our ecosystem. Their support and assistance has been crucial for us at various touch- points in our operation. In fact, they have played key roles in facilitating several services like Visa At Your Doorstep where 95 per cent of the applications were facilitated by travel agents. No industry works without a strong ecosystem, and our support has always been the travel trade fraternity. We will continue to engage with them and ensure we are always abreast of their requirements.
Q. Any service enhancements for the Indian market, especially for the agents?
Through consistent engagement and communication, we ensure we are always cognisant of their requirements. Regular meetings and roadshows not only allow us to develop this successful synergy but also help us feel the pulse of the travel trade community. In order to support their efforts, we have several special offers and packages for them. We offer the travel agents a wide range of innovative services like preferred pricing for Visa At Your Doorstep group applications, Premium Lounges for personalised service, and ability to apply outside regular hours (prime time services). In addition to this, we are increasing our outreach to our travel partners regarding process-related information to ensure they are best equipped to serve their customers and set the right expectations. We have invested strongly into an extended customer service department and staff training on the ground.
