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Read MoreGaurav Arora, Founder & CEO of Enhance Hospitality
Brief us about your outset story of your career.
Our USP is clear. I come from a luxury hotel sales background. At ‘Enhance Hospitality’, servicing & understanding luxury hotels, destinations & travel trade partners is a big part of our working culture. And connecting with all these stakeholders & creating value for each of them is something I truly enjoy! We firmly believe that our experience in luxury hotels and destinations, is a very big advantage and value for our hotel and tourism partners.
Another USP for ‘Enhance Hospitality’ is that we have a young, energetic team. With India having one of the youngest populations in the world, it makes sense as they are very well equipped to understand the requirements of the travel trade fraternity in an increasingly digital context. All our team members are very digital savvy & have a knack for luxury hospitality.
Please tell us about your organisation. What are your primary roles and responsibilities?
As a sales and marketing representation company for our global luxury clients; our objective is to obviously increase business for them. This is to say that year on year, their business should grow with us. The Indian travel market has been growing, if we just remove the COVID days. But we know that the future from here for outbound tourism from India is phenomenal. It has been recording phenomenal growth year-on-year for the last 2 decades. So, our objective is not only to increase business for our hotel partners and destination partners, but to also make sure that partner with some of the most stunning global hotels and destinations for the Indian travel market. We have a great opportunity to bring amazing global hotel and destination experiences into the Indian travel market and make it available to our travel trade & wedding industry partners, and then eventually to our Indian travellers.
For businesses, e-commerce opens up new markets and provides opportunities for growth. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can compete with larger companies without the need for significant physical infrastructure. Moreover, e-commerce platforms offer valuable data analytics that help businesses understand customer behavior, tailor their offerings, and optimize marketing strategies.
How did you respond to the challenges induced by the COVID-19 pandemic? What measures did you incorporate to surpass the challenges?
For me, starting ‘Enhance Hospitality’ has been an immensely satisfying journey. When we started in 2018, just to get new hotel partners and tourism destinations to believe in us, was the first big step. But we have been extremely blessed because not only did we get some of the best-known brands across the globe; but we also got an opportunity to grow their business in the Indian market.
The biggest challenge for the hospitality & travel industry has been COVID. And we look at it as also one of the biggest opportunities. We have totally changed the way we work in the last one year. The entire way of sales and marketing for global luxury hotels and tourism destinations has changed for us. And I foresee this changing for the very long term. We have essentially become a digital sales & marketing company for most of our clients during this last year and a half. And going forward, it is going to be a hybrid model for us, which means our physical presence combined with the digital presence would have really gone up substantially. Whether it is social media or e-tradeshows; we are really reaching out to our customers in the most digital way. We also learnt a lot about creativity, especially in the digital context. The kind of digital content that you can create with today’s tools is quite spectacular. And the reach that we can see because of digitization because of so many channels being available at the click of a button. This is quite powerful. And we see that this digital imprint that we have created for ourselves, will be a big driving force for ‘Enhance Hospitality’. So, in the post COVID era, we will see our customers in their offices physically for sure, because that cannot be done away with. However, the way we communicate with them through a digital medium, and the way we create influence for the Indian traveller in the digital context is only going to increase.
Another significant challenge is logistics and supply chain management. Ensuring timely delivery, managing returns, and maintaining inventory levels require robust systems and processes. Cybersecurity is also a major concern, as online businesses are vulnerable to data breaches and cyberattacks, which can erode customer trust.
What advice would you give to the next generation of aspiring and budding Business people?
My advice to young entrepreneurs would be – Be humble, Be brave and work with intense energy. The intensity of our efforts will make sure that we not only reach our goals, but also enjoy the journey. It’s very important to reach landmarks and milestones. It’s equally important to enjoy that journey. So, if you really like what you do, then I think the entrepreneurial journey is probably the most satisfying one. I also recommend one to start an entrepreneurial journey in a domain that one really likes. For me, it has been showcasing global luxury hotels and destinations in the Indian travel market. I love every aspect of this business. So, I really enjoy every bit of time that I spend building ‘Enhance Hospitality’.
However, the impact is not entirely negative. The shift to e-commerce has forced traditional retailers to innovate and adapt. Many have embraced an omnichannel strategy, integrating their online and offline operations to provide a seamless shopping experience. For example, retailers now offer services like “buy online, pick up in-store” (BOPIS) and curbside pickup, which combine the convenience of online shopping with the immediacy of physical stores.
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