Run by experienced travel industry professionals, TravelBullz is noted for regional expertise, innovation, competitive, and highly personalised travel services. Kanwer Deep Singh, Founder & President, TravelBullz shared about the steps they have taken to prepare for the future.
Bharti Sharma
Travelling post the pandemic is not going to be the same but it doesn’t have to be all chaos and hassles especially with TravelBullz to your rescue. In order to ensure smooth travelling once international borders are open again, especially with the new set of rules, guidelines and requirements, TravelBullz provides adequate assistance to its partners at every step of their travel journey. The travel trade has always been a priority for them, thus they make sure to bestow the sector with the most personalised services right from discovery, bookings to authentic local experiences. Even when the world was locked up inside their homes, Kanwer Deep invested his time in brainstorming sessions with the team to come up with the most innovative ideas to educate the travel trade sector.
Destinations selling like hot cakes
Customisation is a trend that is visible across industries from fashion to tech, so how can travel be an exception. Leisure Travel, which is a cardinal aspect of our life, has started gaining momentum and how. Talking about the destinations and segments witnessing great numbers, Kanwer Deep shares, “The current trend continues to be Maldives, followed by UAE. Recently, we have started to get a lot of queries for Thailand and other Asian countries as they are opening up. However, in the long haul, Western Europe is still the most favoured destination but sadly the recent spike in covid cases have dampened the spirits of their seekers. Maldives has flourished as a destination because of its structure, Thailand has a Test and Go facility and now Singapore has announced VTL flights.”
He adds, “The destination is not really the only criteria for leisure travellers. It also depends on the ease of travel which includes covid rules and guidelines, the number of RT-PCR tests, time and the cost involved in getting it done. Overall, safety still remains a concern for decision-makers while choosing their pick.”
Wellness- the game changer
During the pandemic, one of the trends that is fast becoming a lifestyle for many is wellness. While there has been an upsurge in the demand for wellness travel, Kanwer Deep tells, “Wellness travellers are extremely specific with their requirements. They are always looking for specialised wellness resorts with established credentials. For wellness, we are recommending and focusing on Thailand which has great product offerings. We are working with wellness resorts to bring in great experiences for our agent partners to share with their customers.”
The trendsetter
TravelBullz was the first company since the onset of the pandemic to reinitiate physical events in Delhi and Chandigarh – ‘Let’s Talk’ bringing an end to an era of remaining indoor and attending virtual meetings only. Kanwer Deep mentions, “This encouraged a lot of other stakeholders in the industry to come forward and start engaging with people. This disseminated a strong signal to the travel fraternity that now is the beginning of the normalisation of travel. Over 100 guests/travel trade professionals attended the event respectively.”
Educating the trade
It’s time to invest in innovation and enhance customer experience. Talking about how TravelBullz engaged with the trade during the tough times, he adds, “At TravelBullz, we have always maintained the industry leadership in keeping our travel partners engaged. In the early pandemic days, we did educational webinars however we did innovate to move away from one-way monologues to the active participation of agents and bookers in order to bring engagement and excitement to the webinars.”
TravelBullz in association with the Tourism Authority of Thailand recently organised the Indian Travel League. The fun-filled quiz program aimed at engaging the travel agent community in India focused on Phuket, Krabi, Phang Nga, Khao Lak, Koh Yao Yai and Noi. The goal was to garner interest, awareness and educate sellers about the destinations and hotel and attraction partners. Kanwer Deep tells, “ITL – Indian Travel League (based on the IPL concept ) has set up the standard of engagement to a completely new level where engagement with the trade was over a period of 6 weeks and over 600+ agents registered, 120+ agents played ITL virtual quiz matches for over 4 weeks and over 30 agents won great prizes.”
Trends and forecast
With the revival of tourism being the prominent question of the moment, Kanwer Deep is optimistic that the business will revitalize by next year. “We are all waiting for the current hectic activities to convert into business soon. Also, I wish all our trade partners can go back to pre-pandemic levels as soon as possible. TravelBullz is looking at business revival from first quarter 2022 and big pent up demand bouncing back in the second quarter,” he concludes.
