Trans India Holidays Group Ventures into Rapidly Growing Online Space

Launches BigBreaks, India’s First Online Travel Agency That Allows Travel Customization to the Last Detail

·         BigBreaks aims to revolutionize the tour and travel industry by offering unprecedented customization of tour packages

·         India’s online travel agency market is expected to grow to USD 40 billion by 2030 riding on rapidly increasing Internet penetration

New Delhi, January 2016: After years of helping wanderlusts plan their travels around the globe, Trans India Holidays Group, one of India’s leading offline travel agencies, is now venturing into the online travel space with its new venture BigBreaks that specializes in personalizing customer tours to the last detail.

BigBreaks aims to fill the existing gaps and voids in the travel industry’s offerings and revolutionize the way Indian travellers plan and book their tours.

According to Goldman Sachs’ recent report on travel and ecommerce, India’s online travel agency market is expected to grow from USD 8 billion in 2014 to USD 40 billion in by 2030 as Internet penetration increases and more and more people look for online solutions to travel and other programs. The prospect of 1 billion people online by 2030 sets the stage for enormous growth in e-commerce. Online travel space is therefore set to witness an unprecedented growth in the near future.

While there is no dearth of offerings, packages, booking options and exotic locations offered by a wide array of online travel agencies in India, travellers often experience a lack of fulfilment due to the inability of standard travel packages to resolve some of their unsaid quests. Resultantly, the travellers have to modify their plans to meet the standardized packages offered by agencies. Bigbreaks has been conceptualized to do the opposite – to modify and tailor its packages to meet even the smallest desires of the travellers.

This also acts as an obstacle to growth of travel industry as it does not inspire complete confidence among certain sections of customers such as elderly people and single women. Such groups may need greater personalization of travel plans such as separate activity guides to suit elderly, attendants to help or women cab drivers for women.

BigBreaks aims to touch this hitherto unreached aspect of travel planning, and customize travel plans to meet customer requirements to the last detail. The idea is the brainchild of Mr Kapil Goswamy, MD, BigBreaks, a veteran of the travel organizing industry.

“Being a part of the travel for so many years, I not only relate to the industry professionally, but also personally. With every successful travel experience, I get a sense of achievement, as I’m able to fulfil somebody’s travel dream. However, for a long time now I have felt a gap that leaves customers a little unfulfilled despite the best of travel packages. I realized that while the industry was offering them standard packages, they lacked the flexibility of personalizing their trips. They had to compromise on their small desires and quests to fit in their plans to the standard travel packages. At BigBreaks, consumers can book their flights and hotels, customise their destinations and services to the last detail,” said Mr. Kapil Goswamy, Managing Director, BigBreaks.

“Unlike others OTA’s who are primarily technology companies selling travel, we are a travel company adopting the latest internet technologies to give our clients the advantages of lower costs, wider variety and the convenience of 24 x 7 bookings. Being a late entrant in the online space may mean that other OTAs already have a established presence in the field, but it also gives us a unique advantage of having a clear picture of what needs improvement in the industry. We have modeled our services to remove the problems existing in the industry including lack of flexibility in product offering, poor responses from Customer Service teams, slow and tedious refund processes etc.  It is these important customer requirements that we seek to fulfill,” adds Mr. Goswamy.

According to a survey by US-based Travel Consulting Firm Phocuswright, the size of the Indian travel market in 2014 stood at Rs 90, 000 crores, out of which the share of online travel market was just Rs 36,000 crores. With greater penetration of Internet, this share is set to rise majorly over the next two decades. The hotels and packaging segment which remains underpenetrated would be the key growth driver in the OTA space. BigBreaks aims to tap this market with better packaging and more personalized services. Besides offering regular flight and hotel bookings, BigBreaks specializes in offering customised package deals to its customers.

Helping people reach their dream destinations, Mr Goswamy has been a part of the travel industry for 30 years. He owns and runs a Rs 100 crore brick and mortar travel booking business, and Big Breaks is his first venture into the buzzing online world of travel.