In an interaction with TTI, Dev Karvat, Founder & CEO – India & Emerging Markets, TrawellTag Cover-More spoke on the importance of travel ancillary services and the need to educate travellers in India on the importance of opting for insurance while travelling
Q. Ever since the inception of ‘TrawellTag’ in 2000, how has the company grown in the travel assistance services space?
A. TrawellTag stepped into this space when the whole concept of travel assistance was relatively new to the Indian Market. We started off with a single office, servicing out first client and gradually expanded our reach to each and every corner of the country.
In the year 2000, internet was just in its emerging stage, and we had the privilege of marking the inception of the online travel agent service portal in India which helped us reach an even wider set of audience. We offered plans that could be customized according to the varied needs of each customer. We were the first to introduce a unique metallic tag ‘TrawellTag’ for luggage tracking services. In 2010-11, we introduced emergency medical assistance, concierge assistance and family protection services to the customers, which helped us, achieve an upper hand in the market.
Our dedication and focus on ensuring customer delight and sustained profitable growth, attracted the global giant of travel insurance industry, Cover-More, to invest in TrawellTag in 2012. This helped us set our foot in the global market and enhanced sales of our ancillary products. In 2017, TrawellTag Cover-More was acquired by Zurich Insurance Group, one of the world’s leading multi-line insurers. TrawellTag Cover-More right now has 43 offices pan India with nearly 450 employees and an active client base of 11,000 which includes tour operators, TMC’s, OTA’s and airlines in India.
Q. Kindly throw some light on your current distribution network and presence in global markets?
A. TrawellTag Cover-More works with some of the largest travel agency networks, foreign exchange players, airlines and travel agent’s associations that cater to different market verticals that we serve. Some of our major contributors in the retail segment include reputed players like Cox and Kings, Veena World, among others.
In this age of internet revolution, our partnership with some of the leading OTAs and airlines like GoIbibo, Yatra, Indigo and GoAir has proved invaluable in reaching the new age travellers. Privatization and surge in the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has resulted in an increase in the number of people travelling abroad for business. Corporate travel agents such as FCM Travel Solutions, Yatra Corporate and BCD Travel helps us serve the business travellers. Our partnership with the Cover-More group and subsequently being a part of the Zurich Group has helped us leave footprint across the globe having strongest positions in Australia and the U.S. In addition, we also have operations in Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Spain, Indonesia and the United Kingdom.
Q. How has the integration into Zurich’s global travel insurance business helped to further grow your footprint in the Indian and overseas markets?
A. Zurich Insurance Group is a leading multi-line insurer with around 147 years of experience and products and services spread across over 210 countries. Their diversification positions us well and gives us a strong presence across customer segments and product lines. Zurich’s brand value strengthens our reputation for being able to comprehend the risks our customers face and to structure offerings that meet their unique needs. Integration with Zurich also helps us attract talented individuals from across the globe adding even more value to the organization.
Q. Considering how the technology has disrupted the business of brick and mortar travel agencies, how can focus on allied services like travel insurance help them to maintain profitability?
A. Working with us gives our partners an edge as we take the trouble to understand ground realities and provide valuable inputs and support to help our agents get acquainted with the changes happening in the industry and help them to find solutions. We conduct regular workshops, conference meetings with our partners to connect with them. We are agile technology providers apart from being travel assistance and insurance partners. Our travel assistance and insurance portal can be easily accessed by our clients to quote and issue travel assistance and insurance. This enables increased responsiveness for our partner’s sales. We are providing marketing support to our trade partners, particularly travel agents, so that they can talk to their customers about why travel ancillary services are important.
Q. How has the number of travellers using medical and travel security services in India grown over the years? Do you think there is still a need to educate travellers in India on the importance of opting for insurance while travelling?
A. The Indian market is yet to fully realize the need for travel insurance when travelling abroad. More than 80 per cent of Indian travellers do not opt for trip cover, mainly because of the lack of awareness of its utilities, travel risks and poor marketing of travel ancillary services. But again we see this as an opportunity to bring about a change by educating the masses and changing the perception.
We continue to focus on training and enlightening the travel agents through our training programme and Travel Agents Engagement Programme (TAEP). With this we aim at improving conversions for travel agents and ensure to protect as many travellers as possible with travel assistance and insurance. This will also help us in achieving our primary goal of improving the conversion rate of the Indian travel insurance industry, which is stalled at 20 per cent. Global Travel Assistance is one of the upcoming trends that is picking up in the country today and we have now started to see a gradual growth in the awareness about travel assistance and insurance among people.