TravTalk India Online Magazine
Since its inception 25 years ago, Asego has been driven by the mission of not only delivering unparalleled travel assistance and insurance solutions but also ensuring mutual growth of partners in ancillary business, says Dev Karvat, Founder & CEO, Asego.
Hazel Jain
Asego recently celebrated 25 years. Tell us how travel agents figure in your plans going ahead?
In these 25 years, we have created a strong ecosystem along with our trade partners. When we started, it used to take two days for somebody to get a policy, which now happens in seconds. It used to take months for travellers to claim, which now happens in days. Moreover, there was no product differentiation, but today we have more than 300 products. We have a solution for every kind of traveller.
As we move forward, our objective is to ensure that travel insurance and the protection services become the largest revenue generators. This is the situation worldwide and India should be no different. And as market leaders, we take this responsibility to make sure that we will generate maximum revenue for the travel agency.
How has Asego onboarded technology into the system for agents?
We have just introduced a new tech platform called Dolphin which allows us to customise the product for our trade partners depending on who the customer is and where he is travelling. The system will show the right product to him. We have tie-ups with multiple service providers across the world, and the system is so well integrated that it picks up the right partner, depending on which country are you travelling to, and gives you the right solution. Dolphin is going to be a big part of our lives and our travel partners’ lives.
How has travel insurance evolved over the years?
A lot has changed post-COVID. We are witnessing a huge mindset change in customers, and they are now asking for insurance. Not only that, now they also want to know what they are being covered for and how much will they be able to claim, how will they be able to claim it, etc. They want to know everything before they travel. That is a big shift.
One of the big shifts we are seeing today is that people are buying travel insurance even while travelling to short-haul destinations. It is because, I think, travellers now realise that the medical cost outside India can really add up. I see a big rise in most countries making travel insurance mandatory. So, I think in the next few years, we will see a huge conversion happening towards travel insurance among people travelling outbound.
How do you plan to train the agents about your new products?
We are starting a SmartEdge programme across the country, where we will be going out to train the travel agents and their counter staff on our products, how they should actually sell it, and how they can upsell new products. This will help in conversions, which is close to 25 per cent and should go up to about 50 per cent in the next couple of years. There are still people who feel that they don’t need travel insurance, because there is still a lack of awareness on the issue.
