How To Start A Travel Business In India With Low Investment

Do you love travelling and want to convert your hobby into a profession? Or you might be thinking of starting a travel agency? It is an awesome idea!

Travel & Tourism is one of the biggest industries in the world. And, India has been a magnet for tourists across the world. Starting from the Wonders of the world; Taj Mahal, there are a lot of places that every person should visit at least once in their lifetime.

Many Indian states like Goa and North-Eastern states' primary revenue depends on tourism. No doubt, the tourism industry is one of the largest industries in India and significant employment generators. As per the UN's World Tourism Organization, the industry offers 6-7% of the world's total jobs directly and indirectly.

In this post, we will discuss how to start a travel business and take you through the step-by-step process:

Step-1: Identify Your Customer

The main focus of any business is to attract an audience and convert them into your potential customers. When you are starting your business, first, identify your target customer and find what their tastes of life are. There is a small trick to identify your customer, adjusting the trips or activities as per their needs. And creating a market plan with keeping in mind the budget of the customer.

Besides, you can also develop multiple places by travelling yourself and create a database of the location; hotels, or activities you can offer to your customers.

Step-2: Deal with the Legal Aspects

Luckily, as per the Indian legal system, there is not a lot of legal red tape when you are planning to start a travel business. You do not need any kind of license to start or register the tour and travel business. You only need to register your company.

How to Register Your Company

When you have finally become confident about starting your entrepreneurial journey in tour & travel, you want your company to get registered. Whether you want to register your firm with a private company, LLP, or OPC or partnership at the beginning.

Most travel agents go for the Private Limited Company as it is one of the most extensively used and known forms of business in India bringing numerous benefits. If you are planning to offer your services online and quickly scale up your business through the internet, a private limited company is a better option for you.

One Person Company can work great if you have plans to slowly build your business or do it on a part-time basis. Because the Limited Liability partnerships have no obligation for audit unless the turnover goes above Rs.40 lakhs in a year, entrepreneurs can also go for proprietorship's with a trademark, in the case when the businessman wants to get a unique brand name that is out of stock to be registered with the MCA because of guidelines.

Keep it in mind that the business structure you decide to go with will mainly depend on your business plans and strategy or the amount you intend to invest.

Step-3: Introduce Your Brand Identity

Once you finalize what your business structure looks like and who your customer is, it's high time to make a branding plan.

In this highly competitive era, it is very tough to survive especially if you have just started your business, but you stand out and ensure your growth through a well-developed branding strategy.

While planning just imagine how you want your customers to feel when they visit your business site or see your ads or try your service. It is a simple but popular formula, the more you have satisfied customers the more your business will be branded.

Step-4: Source of Funding

How did you plan to fund your travel business?

This is the advantage of the tour & travel business, your starting cost under this business will be very low as you will have no expenses to buy expensive equipment or you do not need extensive office space at the beginning of your business.

After some time, you will need and for that, you need to make sure that you have a funding plan today. As you can see, your initial funding budget will be invested in branding, marketing, or advertising and you may also decide to hire employees and rent office space at the initial phase of your business.

But let be very clear here that unlike other businesses, there is no tried and true way of funding a travel business. You have multiple options to fund your business from personal funding to loan or venture capital funding.

Step-5: Finally, Launch Your Business & Involve in Marketing

Marketing is likely to be there where majorly all your funding will go. And, no doubt, marketing is one of the most focused areas when you are starting a tour and travel business. After initial registration and marketing, you are ready to launch your business in the market.