It’s important to invest in your people: Veena Patil and Sudhir Patil

Veena Patil, founder and director VeenaWorld and Sudhir Patil, founder and director VeenaWorld share their thoughts and vision and how to tackle any crisis in the travel and tourism sector with only a positive approach. By Reema Lokesh

Their Journey in the travel space.

Veena and Sudhir Patil’s journey in the travel and tourism industry dates back a few decades. With humble beginnings they went on to set an empire in the travel space that is regarded to be robust and promising. Their mission is to 1) make travel affordable with continuous innovation in the world of tourism 2) To create a community of happy world travelers by offering professionally planned holidays with a personal touch 3) To develop an empowering culture that inspires team members, partners and associates to strive for higher levels of achievement and growth 4) To build India’s most admired travel company. Says Veena and Sudhir Patil, “VeenaWorld has been lovingly nurtured from a single seed to create a unique travel experience for all kinds of travelers. Our journey so far, has truly been an incredible one!”

Our key Learnings

There is no substitute to hard work. One has to be in constant touch with the customer, listen to them patiently and cater to their demands and also their issues instantly. The travel and tourism sector is a vibrant one and one of the most encouraging when it comes to employment generation. In VeenaWorld’s Mumbai office itself there around 500 team members with almost 376 members as women. We are proud of our unique work culture. Its very important to invest in your people. As our son Neil Patil says, that our home grown tour managers itself are our brand samurais.

Facing today’s challenges.

No industry is infallible. Yes the tourism industry has a number of bottlenecks from taxation issues, to government’s focus and commitment, to aviation volatility but the fact remains that as industry professionals we have to move ahead amidst all the stressful times. This is also a highly sensitive industry and a lot demands on market conditions, geopolitical activities etc. At this point we would say that we do our best to work in trying times as well. If this was not true then our Kashmir tours would not be as popular.

The use of technology in tourism – AI and MH

Technology has definitely aided in reshaping the entire customer experience. At VeenaWorld we are making necessary and calculated investments in a number of things including Chatbots, AI, ML with an aim to provide our customers with better experiences. We believe that in our country a hybrid model consisting of both technological innovations and personal service of high quality will define how sustainable your business will be in the future.

Future Trends in Travel

However cliché it may sound, travel is a need and humans by nature are explorers. Today’s travellers are aware and active. The aim is to offer them something that is not predictable and most importantly something that they will cherish for a lifetime even in the most predictable and popular destination both in India and across the world. For example on our all women tours, there are some truly heartwarming moments and memories we come across which people share. It is all about experiential travel and that need not be expensive or to exotic locations. Further, India’s domestic tourism is waiting to be further explored with newer products being introduced in the market. In the outbound space, the sky is the limit. As we said earlier amidst all the issues and bottlenecks, one has to have the focus and commitment to move ahead with the customer welfare in mind. The story of travel has just began for us and I am sure most of our industry counterparts who are committed to this profession will feel the same. The is a lot we have spoken about lethargy, leadership failure and lack of infrastructure. Let’s move on building this industry one step at a time and miracles do happen.

The importance of manpower investment

Investing is your people as we said earlier is something that we strongly believe and also regular practice. It is a part of our DNA. As we said we take pride in building our home grown tour operators and encourage women in our work force wholeheartedly. Our team strength speaks for itself. Having said that, there is talent in the market, it is time to tap them soon and nurture them into this inspiring profession.