TravTalk India Online Magazine
With a view to replicating the volume of business coming from metros in tiered markets, Red Carpet Travels has created a portal that will not only increase the smaller agents’ efficiency levels, but also educate them about destinations, thereby empowering them, claims Rajesh Kakade, Founder & Global Director at Red Carpet Travels.
Hazel Jain
Rajesh Kakade, Founder & Global Director at Red Carpet Travels, is a man with a vision. Having grown his business from a scratch over the last eight years, he now wants to help the travel agents in tier II, III, and even IV cities to grow. He says, “The FIT leisure and family travel are fast-growing segments. But the challenge is that people in tier II, III, and IV markets still need to understand how to create itineraries, how to price them, the destination on ground, and how to promote them. Agents in these smaller markets face problems, especially during season time, in that they don’t get quick response from the DMCs because they are busy. They are not on priority and the revert on queries happens after three or four days.”
To resolve this issue, his company has developed a digital platform for the agents. “I’m sure this will change the dynamic of the travel industry. The portal offers various things to the agents, whether it is a basic itinerary of a destination or a customised one. We will be doing a mega launch for this later this year. Until then we will be testing the portal to iron out the bugs. We will start with promoting this in smaller markets like tier IV cities to do test runs and get feedback. If these agents can manage to use this portal to design itineraries, then it will be easy for us to get into bigger markets and metros,” Kakade adds.
Agents can bring in efficiency
On an average, agents get about 100 queries and about 20 convert to business. “This platform will also help them give their clients a quote on the spot without wasting time creating the itineraries and without involving Red Carpet or a DMC. It’s that easy. This is for FITs and small family groups. They can either pick from readymade itineraries, or alter it as per their convenience, or create an entirely new programme. If the agent is not aware of a particular excursion, the system will guide them and show them a video. So, there will be a lot of tools to help the agents. This is not just a selling tool; this portal will also educate them about destinations. The intention here is to help and educate them. In turn, I will also get more business from them if they understand the destination and how to sell it. If they are able to sell the itinerary, I too will get more business!” Kakade explains.
Tiered markets have huge scope
There is huge potential in tier II, III, and even IV cities, Kakade says. “Here, the agents don’t always get support and information from DMCs. They still need handholding, especially given the fact that business in these markets is huge! And I want the agents in smaller towns like Amravati or Satara to get big clients. An agent from a metro city who was giving three to four FIT clients six years ago is today giving me more than 20-30 FIT business. This is huge growth! We want to replicate this kind of growth from tiered cities with this new digital portal,” he adds.
Sharing a quick recap on how this portal will help the agents, Kakade explains, “This will help the agents convert their queries into bookings faster. If it’s a ready package, agent can give a quote within 3-4 minutes. If it’s a customised one, maximum 30 minutes. Efficiency levels will skyrocket with this tool.”
Red Carpet Travels recently celebrated its eighth anniversary. The compnay started from a small office in USA and has added destinations like Scandinavia, Australia, and Europe.
