TravTalk India Online Magazine
From being the first website to offer free flight cancellation in 2016, WTFARES.com has grown to serve 20,000+ customers in the last four years. It now has a new office in Mumbai.
Manas Dwivedi
Serving over 900 SMEs through its self-booking tool, WTFARES.com is promoting wildlife tourism in Nagpur with 300 plus arrivals into the city going to Tadoba, Pench National Park and Kanha Tiger Reserve. The company also recently signed an agreement with Air Seychelles to boost arrivals into the East African nation. Varun Sarda, Founder & CEO, WTFARES.com, says that the strength of the company has now increased to 35 employees with its new office in Mumbai. “A dedicated team of four looks just into wildlife. Besides, WTFARES has seen phenomenal growth in outbound travel to Seychelles, Maldives, Vietnam and South Africa, closing about 50 files every month. A new website is on its way later in 2020, which will capitalise on travel data, follow behaviour of travellers and empower them to customise their trips,” he adds.
A new website is on its way later in 2020, which will capitalise on travel data, follow travellers’ behaviour and empower them to customise trips
WTFARES is working closely with more than 50 travel agents from Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Kolkata by empowering them with its multi-BSP platform, which gives them a wide choice of airlines and agreements, something which is still unique in India, Sarda says. Along with this, the company also serves them with Seychelles, Maldives and Thailand.
Commenting on trends for the upcoming travel season, Sarda feels that Europe is going to see a phenomenal growth due to sceptical travel within South-east Asia after the coronavirus outbreak. “People have started cancelling trips to Thailand, Vietnam and even Singapore. This is a major concern and travellers are sceptical until there’s a resolution to this. We anticipate people travel- ling more towards the West or Down Under. The tourism industry will be impacted at large because visa to South- east Asian countries was easily accessible,” he says.
