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For 70-year-old Yashwant Kale, a holiday abroad meant going out with his wife, daughter and grandson. The foursome brainstormed and decided to visit Austria and Switzerland in end-May 2014. There was the onerous task of finding a tour operator who would provide them with different activities, as each family member had his/her own preferences. It was then that they decided to go with a startup that is solely into customized tour packages.
“A travel firm puts all travellers to a destination in one category and there is no attempt made to give different experiences for members in the same group. I did not want that,” says Kale.
Since Europe has a number of hotels without lifts, Kale expressed his concern to Broken Compass, a startup located in Mumbai that he chose to book his holiday. He says not only was the family’s concern taken care of, but each of them was able to do their own thing-the senior citizens chose to stay in their hotels or take a hop-on-hop-off tour, while the others went shopping or touring malls.
“It made the tour enjoyable with a car at our disposal and not a coach. It is these comforts that make a trip memorable,” points out Kale.
Customized tours
The travel market in India is expected to grow to reach $28.8 billion in 2015, including the online travel market which is poised to grow at 27 percent in revenues to touch $8.8 billion, according to travel research firm PhocusWright Inc.
Customized tours are the ticket to blissful vacations for those who’d like to go off the beaten track and discover trails not trampled upon by hordes of tourists. Here, the destination, itinerary, hotels are decided by the traveller and the firm tailors the trip around a traveller’s budget.
This is not an area of focus of only niche players. Established travel firms have been doing it for some time now. However, it forms only a minuscule part of their business. Manjari Verma, 32, and Avani Patel, 31, Co-Founders of Broken Compass, decided to start a firm curating customized experiences for travellers looking for atypical holidays.
“The segment of tourists who go for customized packages largely include HNIs, FITs (foreign independent travellers), families, DINKS (double-income-no-kids) and honeymooners,” informs Daniel D’souza, Head, Sales-Tour Operating, Kuoni India. “These travellers are experienced, knowledgeable and prefer to experiment. The average age group is 35-44 years, indicating that customized holiday travellers are becoming younger. The challenge is to constantly design innovative packages for them,” he says.
Popular destinations for customized vacations are the US and Europe, say tour operators.
Money, not an issue
“Customized tours are mainly for that category of people for whom money is not a cause for concern. They understand that their demands for travel require money and are not shy of paying for it,” informs Avani Patel.
Patel met Manjari Verma through her room-mate in Mumbai. Verma worked as a copywriter for five years and then switched tracks to become a freelance travel writer. “Both of us shared similar views and vision about travel and a prospective company. So we decided to pool our resources and start a venture together,” mentions Patel, a former marine biologist.
“That’s how Broken Compass was born in 2010. It’s called Broken Compass because, when you deviate from a fixed plan or route, you actually see the real world - that’s our philosophy,” says Verma, who along with Patel put in Rs 10,000 each as seed capital to launch the firm.
Starting off
Broken Compass’s first client came through Twitter. A group of three friends wanted to go to Ladakh for a fortnight. The Ladakh tour got the map out where business was concerned for the firm. They have not advertised so far and satisfied customers spread the word, says Verma.
A big advantage of customized travel tours is the ease of travel. “A traveller is not dumped at one spot with the group and allotted a fixed time for shopping and sightseeing. They can choose to linger, change plans as they wish,” says Patel.
To book a holiday with Broken Compass, a client has to initially fill a questionnaire stating interests and the budget following which the firm suggests a few sites. The startup ties up with local vendors in every destination that the client is travelling. “Our local vendors are vetted before we finalize them for our tours. We are also available 24x7 to the client when a tour is on.” The firm outsources visas and flight bookings for those who do not have their own booking agents.
Business model
Broken Compass functions on two revenue models. The first, consultation, is based on a fee-based model depending on the extent of work a traveller’s itinerary requires. The consultation charge is a percentage of the trip’s estimated cost. However, consultation forms only a small part of the business, says Patel.
Though planning holidays is their passion, Patel says, difficulties arise when a client comes with a budget of Rs. one lakh and asks for a week’s trip to Switzerland. “We also have to turn away clients who want holidays planned at short notice. A customized tour package is an experience and cannot be done in a jiffy,” Verma reiterates. With online portals offering travel packages at ridiculous prices, Patel says, business gets a bit affected and therefore they have been able to grow organically.
The firm is not looking at external funding. “We would like to avoid it as much as possible and instead plough back our money into the venture,” informs Patel.
From 25-30 trips in the first year, Broken Compass now undertakes 120 trips a year.In 2013-14, the company’s turnover was Rs. 1.5 crore. Next on the radar is thematic tours, says Verma. These would include trips around food and drink, adventure, exploration, and once this is up and rolling, Verma and Patel expect turnover to grow to 10 percent next year.
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