Staff crunch in tertiary cities

Harmandeep Singh Anand, MD, Jagsons Travels, says the reduced number of travel agents in Nagpur and surrounding cities post-COVID has led to a shortage of trained staff.

Hazel Jain

While the metro cities have been reeling under immense pressure for providing trained manpower not only to the travel industry, but also aviation, we see tertiary cities also going through a similar challenge. Sharing the insight, Harmandeep Singh Anand, MD, Jagsons Travels, says, “If we compare the amount of business which was there pre-COVID, we are doing at least 25 per cent higher than that today. One of the main reasons is that the number of agents has reduced post COVID, not just in Nagpur but also the surrounding tertiary cities because there has been a shortage of trained staff. A lot of them have exited the industry during COVID. It will take some time for people to get trained.” Jagsons Travels is doing its bit towards this. Anand says that the company has invested heavily in the business in order to start promoting products that can create a niche. This includes products like NextCellular and Cordelia Cruises. “This way, our partners also benefit. We are also educating and empowering the travel industry through Global Panorama Showcase. We just concluded the Kochi show on October 10-11, followed by  Indore on October 27-28. We now look forward to Kolkata on November 22-23 and maybe even Guwahati in December 2023,” he says.

GPS recently also concluded Edwin in Ladakh and the next one is scheduled to be held in South Africa. “At GPS, we also conduct sessions on GST and TCS to educate the trade. This year, we will also  focus on cyber forensics,” he adds. In the business for over 45 years, Jagsons Travels has carved a niche for itself, not just in Nagpur and Central India but across India. In the last few years, it started reaching out to other markets as well where it started doing B2B business on a larger scale.