Create Group Outings and Custom Itineraries Online

Gargi Banerjee, part of our Travel Massive Dehli chapter, is the co-founder of GoGroupOuting, an online travel marketplace connecting travel agents and travellers.

Gargi helps travellers to travel on their own terms. Travellers can group up, plan an outing, create custom itinerary and invite travel agents to offer private quotes to conduct their custom tour.

We asked Gargi a few questions to see how it works.

Who is your startup for?

GoGroupOuting equally caters to the needs of travellers as well as travel agents. It aims to disrupt the conventional approach of present OTA’s whose main focus is to sell flight bookings, hotel bookings and traditional packages. Therefore GroupOuting is for those travel lovers who do not want to be restricted by what’s on offer but rather wants to travel on their own terms and dare to be adventurous.

What inspired you to create this startup? 

The travel industry currently does not have anything to offer to the young generation who are looking for low budget, unconventional short trips. The goal was to satisfy the need of the GenX/GenY by letting them form a community of like-minded travellers and then connecting them to the community of tour operators who could meet their requirement. The two communities on one organized platform would make tour planning and execution a lot simpler and transparent.

What makes your startup different from other similar startups out there?

GroupOuting has been able to transfer the control back to the traveller. A traveller is no longer restricted by what the big OTAs have to offer. Secondly, despite their huge potential, a vast majority of smaller and mid size travel agents had no single platform to market their services. GroupOuting has successfully created a level playing ground for them. These smaller travel agencies can now claim a fair share of the pie. Unlike other travel marketplaces, GroupOuting wants to create a fair and transparent business environment by bringing the two communities together. The travellers and travel agents can connect directly on GroupOuting.com, instead of being manipulated and obscured by the platform. So this has a huge potential to disrupt the market.

How is your startup changing the future of the industry or helping to make travel better?

GroupOuting.com has been able to create a paradigm shift in the way travellers are used to conducting a travel. GroupOuting™ ensures that travellers are no longer limited by options. Travellers can now take easy decisions on where to travel, how to travel and who to travel with. Similarly, GroupOuting is equally focussed on bringing the smaller travel agents to the forefront.

Do you have any tips for new entrepreneurs who want to create a successful startup?

Always be honest to your customer. If you are able to add value, and your customers are genuinely benefitted, your start-up is bound to be successful.

Travel Start-Up is a monthly series that profiles unique online travel start-ups in the Travel Massive community around the world. Connect with Gargi and GoGroupOuting on Travel Massive, Facebook and Twitter.