Travel Union to digitally empower and build a leading travel agent business community in rural India to serve 1 billion Bharat population
Travel Union, India’s first rural B2B travel tech platform, was launched today. Travel Union, a Sonu Sood initiative, will democratize travel services by providing a platform to Travel Union members (travel agents) towards serving the travel needs of rural customers at every district, block and gram panchayat level. With a mission to support, digitally empower and build a leading travel agent business community in rural India at zero investment, Travel Union aims to be the largest rural digital travel services platform serving the 1 billion Bharat population.
At the rural level, the travel sector has been largely unorganised with no player focusing on the needs of Indians in tier 2 towns and villages. Travel Union addresses multiple unfulfilled needs of rural travel agents, small business owners and enterprises, called Travel Union Members, the primary one being the absence of travel-tech platforms designed for rural travel at the core.
The platform aggregates all available price options for a particular offering and shows Travel Union Members the lowest prices they can offer their customers. It also allows for online cancellations and refunds, eliminating the long wait customers usually have to endure. Members enjoy the benefit of earning high margins due to direct booking options available with multiple travel service partners. Travel Union provides the best inventory, competitive prices, and state-of-the-art technology directly from airlines, railways, hotels, trips, wholesalers and aggregators. It is a one-stop shop to travel agents across India’s hinterlands offered through an app and web portal, making it the first super-aggregator platform to meet the needs of the rural customer. The platform will give access to all trains operating in India through IRCTC, over 500 domestic & international flights, 10,000+ bus operators and 10 lakh+ hotels to its members and consumers.
Travel Union will augment the income and growth opportunities for the existing travel agents, offer an additional and steady stream of income for small business owners, provide new business opportunities for the aspirational entrepreneur and create a network of reliable Travel Union Members (travel agents) to assist the rural consumers.
The onboarding of Travel Union Members will require zero investment from them and there is no recurring cost post onboarding either, lowering the barrier of entry. Also, it offers the lowest IRCTC agent ID purchase cost. Moreover, this cost gets refunded over a period of time upon successful transactions making this ID effectively free, which is an industry-first opportunity available only to Travel Union members.
Travel Union is presently available in English and Hindi. It is soon-to-be launched in 11 more Indian languages. New and upcoming offerings on the platform also include domestic and international holiday packages, visa services, forex services as well as travel/ luggage accessories.
Travel Union App is available to download on Google Play store.
Mumbai, August 6, 2021
.JPG)
