'About 50% of Our Consumers Interact on Mobile, Contributing Close to 35% of the Total Sales' - Giya Diwaan, Country Head, Musafir.com

Giya Diwaan, Country Head, Musafir.com wants to focus on technology advancement to make travel process easier, cheaper and more enjoyable in the next 12 months.

In an interaction with Vaishali Dar, Giya Diwaan shared the company's present status and future plans.

What is your business plan for the coming year?

The company had doubled its business across all the segments in the last 12 months inspite being a challenging year for the industry. We are expecting 2017-18 to be a much better year as we are expecting online visa and holiday business to double up. While growing our flight business, we also plan to expand our holiday and hotel offerings but our online visa services and offerings to our customers is where we think we can contribute the most.

Tell us the benefit to offer online visas across countries?

Securing a visa while planning for a holiday remains to be a pain point for the traveler. We take away the hassle of time consuming visa application procedure by replacing it with much easier online application, right information and expert support for our customers who wish to travel to any part of the world. Online visa services by musafir.com facilitate our customers to complete the full visa process online from the comfort of his/her home or office. They also get the complete information with respect to visa process, dos and don'ts, and destination specific requirements by our expert agents who are available 24x7. We offer online visa services for popular destinations across the world which together accounts for up to 80% of the outbound leisure travel destinations from India.

Tell us about your new services, revenue streams and business models to be launched in the next 12 months?

Over the past 12 months, we have seen our business grow by over 100% and we plan to exceed our last year’s achievement in the coming fiscal as well. Currently, musafir.com provides only international and domestic flights and hotel bookings through its mobile application. We are planning to include more product offerings on our mobile application including holiday packages, Forex and online visas. Currently, we see 50% of our consumers interacting with us on their mobile devices and it contributes close to 35% of our total sales. We see this increasing substantially over the next 15 to 18 months. The trend is changing among Indian travellers. There is a deep inclination towards adventure holiday and unique stay experiences. The travellers prefer taking frequent short trips in a year than having a long holiday once or twice a year.

We will introduce innovative activities, weekend packages, adventurous locations, and multiple stay choices including homestays, villas, etc, in the coming fiscal year for our customers. The focus in next 12 months also will be on technology advancement to make travel process easier, cheaper and more enjoyable. We will be strengthening our offerings at each stage of travel planning starting from visa and destination information to insurance and forex assistance.