Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business?
Vikram Trivedi : I have close to 25 years of hospitality experience; my first assignment being with Lufthansa German Airline, post which I had a decade-long management roles’ journey with Luxury Hotel Companies like ‘The Imperial’, ‘Starwood’, ‘Hyatt’ and ‘Taj Hotels’. The past decade and a half has been with Multi National Travel Companies, the likes of ‘Kuoni’ and ‘Cox & Kings’ in senior leadership roles. So with the concept of customized & personalized service to the discerning clientele being engrained in me, the future path of creating a Fully Customized Tour Company was quite easy.
Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by MyTourBox
Vikram Trivedi : Inbound & International Travel services in the Upscale to Luxury end of business remain core to us and we intend to make it as customized for our discerning guests as possible.
Great Companies: What makes MyTourBox different from hundreds of other Tours & Travel Agencies?
Vikram Trivedi :
Besides being extremely customized, we plan & offer tour services to destinations where someone in the extended team has actually been to! This makes it easy for us to make personalized recommendations based on the likes & dislikes of our guests.
Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face?
Vikram Trivedi : Indian market is spoilt by the cookie cutter approach of several of the larger tour companies, essentially due to intense competition. This is the biggest challenge to we face! Many of our potential clients are just looking at putting a tick against a destination rather than actually seeing & feeling it. If one slows down a bit, there is a plethora of experiences which cost nothing, just time. For example listening to the Azan between Haja Sofia & The Blue Mosque in Istanbul; one verse is sung by one mosque & the next is sung by the other, quite mesmerizing & easily one of my best memories of Istanbul but costed me nothing, only time to sit and listen to it.
Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for MyTourBox?
Vikram Trivedi : The future of outbound travel in India looks promising, with disposable income increasing, economy getting back on track & the ever growing middle class getting ever more interested in exploring the world. We intend to stick to our mission statement of highly customized tours, as this segment will increase with the overall increase in travel. We have started with tours to 50 countries & intend to scale it up to a 100 (or more) by the 5 year horizon.
Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?
Vikram Trivedi : Spend resources carefully.