Travel is in my DNA!

On World Tourism Day that falls on September 27, I take a look at my journey that started five years ago.

I started this tourism business in fact, accidentally. The background is like this – a family friend, living overseas, happened to visit Delhi – to attend a wedding. They asked me to suggest places they could visit outside Delhi and also asked me to help out with the bookings.

At that time, I had a lot of time in hand. In fact, I had just shifted from Bangalore, and hadn’t started to work. What happened then, was that I worked out a nice package for them to go to the interesting tourist spot –  Kumaon. I have visited the area many times, so it wasn’t a problem. It didn’t take me long to call and talk to the hotels and create a package. But, what I noticed was that I loved every minute of it. I got to travel around Kumaon, though virtually! I felt even better when they came back and told me how much they had enjoyed the trip. I felt as if I have had a great trip!

Then I got thinking about this episode. I started to put together my thoughts. Soon my vision emerged, as to what is that I wanted to do as a profession. Travel is something that has always fascinated me. I have travelled extensively with my mother since the age of three. In fact, I would say that, travel is in my DNA. From making the itinerary, to booking hotels to checking for the speciality food and restaurants of the area…we used to plan everything, down to the smallest detail, before any trip. That is exactly the way I plan a trip for each and every guest that walks into my office.

Today WF is 5 years’ young. There is still a long way to go but I can proudly say that WF has a  growing tribe of happy customers (guests) who come back to us again and again – because we provide them that extra personal experience which makes their holidays  memorable! 

(Parbati Bhattacharya is Director of Wanderers Footprints)