Hi Rodinhooders,
I am Chandrabhan Singh Nathawat, a new Rodinhooder. Along with my MBA friend Chetan Soni, we have launched a travel start-up in India called You and India. This is the one of the first Travel Organization in India that has launched greeter network here. Greeter is a local friend in the city who travels with the travelers in the city showing around local culture, art, festival, eating place or drinking place or hangout place rather than just Touristic monuments.
How did we start You and India
I was always interested in travel industry. But I had no idea how to enter this industry. Being from Jaipur, it was easy to enter into this by opening an agency there but I had no intention to be just an agent. So I learnt German, did random courses in French and Spanish and finally got admission in IMT. It was here that I got International exposure and a chance to study in France for one semester and there I got to know about Greeters and my mind clicked with an Idea.
Back in India I talked to my friends and we did research on Indian Tourism as part of my course. My faculty applauded the report and motivated us to take if forward as an research paper. Instead I choose it to form the premises of You and India and Chetan soon joined me and we registered You and India in 2011 November. But we did not initiated it till 2013.
What problems did we found in present travel industry (As result of our primary research and secondary reports)
1. Travelers have no proper information about India. Most of the agencies just provide similar packages.
2. Travelers accuse that in India the services are not the same that they were promised.
3. Limited options.
4. No night life
5. Trust factor- Hawkers, Touts, Beggars, Shop owners etc.
6. Safety Issue
7. Language problem. Difficult to understand the local people even if they use English.
8. Everyone trying to sell something
9. Monument visiting is the only popular reason to Visit India but they see so much on Discovery and other sources.
So after Graduating from IMT, we worked for some more time to develop our Idea and finally launched You and India in January 2013.
What we offer now:
1. Greeter Service:
Greeter is a person who loves to help travelers travel in his or her city. This concept was first used in New York and since then it has spread across the World but still very new. Greeter is not a professional guide but he is one step more close to Travelers. Gone are the days when a guide use to tell about the history of Monuments. Today Travelers is more interested in knowing the culture of city, its hidden gems, entertainment places, best places to eat and night outs for evening and all these can only be achieved through Greeters.
Who can be a Greeter: Anyone who loves his/her city. They want to meet new people from different part of world. It is a voluntary service and also we pay for this service. Any professional person, retired man or housewife or student can be a greeter if they know their city. It is generally for 4-6 hours and anyone can choose his/her availability for this service as per their schedule.
Currently we are looking for greeters in Delhi, Jaipur, Mumbai, Varanasi, Agra, Jodhpur, Kolkata and Jaisalmer. Other cities would be considered too.
We have developed a system of verification to ensure that greeters are genuine people and do not take tourist for granted.
If you are interested please go to this link: https://youandindia.in/greeter-india/become-a-greeter/
2. Experiences:
So You and India helps Travelers help through the city. But You and India is not limited to Greeters. Moving further You and India also provides special experiences in various locations. I took my college friends from France to my native village Bidoli on Diwali, they loved it so much that requested me to continue these trips as they could enjoy the real India in peace away from all teasing people in city, away from photo taking people (they did not like being photographed), here they were no stars but just people, Hence the idea of providing experiences was born, today You and India provides various food walks, village trips, heritage walks, jungle safari, meal with families etc trips to provide varied experience to the travelers.
Who can be our Experience Ambassador: Any freelancer who can add value to the Travelers through some unique thing in his/her city. They can offer home stay or cooking class or dinner and lunch with family. They can be professional photographers providing photography tour of city or Heritage walks, or Food tours or any adventure things to do around city. They can do their professional work and still be our Ambassadors.
If you are interested please contact us through: https://youandindia.in/travel-experiences/provide-an-experience/
We are looking for Ambassadors in: Himachal. Amritsar, Rajasthan, Delhi, Agra, Varanasi, Rishikesh, Mumbai. Goa, Kerala, Hyderabad, Bangalore.
3. Trip Planning:
We understand that people come to India for once and they want to see most of it. So we further expanded to help them through travel plans. We provide free travel tips through this service and advice travelers what all they can do in India. Here travelers can buy all the services from us if they want but otherwise the planning is free from our Side.
Till now we have greeted more than 50 Travelers in around 20 groups. We aim to expand from 4 cities right now to 15 by the financial year end.
You and India is not merely a start-up in travel field but it is an initiative to make the image of India clean and comfortable for travelers so that they give positive feedback for India back home. We hope to see people from different fields joining us as Greeters, Experiences providers and serving Indian Tourism in right direction. We would be grateful if you could put your insights and help us in making You and India even better.
Thank you for reading our story
Chandrabhan Singh
Founder -You and India
info@youandindia.in