In an exclusive interaction with BW Hotelier, Jaal Shah, Managing Director, Travel Designer Group speaks about their recent launch and loyalty programmes in the B2B space.

ONLINE TRAVEL is the future of tourism and travel in India. Rezlive.com, a B2B online travel reservation space from the house of Travel Designer Group, facilitates travel partners to find and book Hotels, Apartments, Sightseeings and Transfers under one window interface. The company has been consistently providing the best and biggest inventory to the travel partners, by contracting with hotel chains and hotels across the globe and also by sourcing them through multiple suppliers. At SATTE 2020, Rezlive introduced Affiliate.Travel, another game changer to revolutionize the travel industry. In an exclusive interaction with BW Hotelier, Jaal Shah, Managing Director, Travel Designer Group speaks about their recent launch and loyalty programmes in the B2B space.

Tell us about your recent launch Affiliate.Travel. 

Affiliate.Travel will be a game changer to revolutionize India’s corporate travel by empowering travel agencies and professionals managing business travel with their own booking engines without investing in technology. As per a KPMG report, India’s business travel market is expected to reach over US$ 93 billion by 2030. Realising the potential in this segment, Indian travel agencies and tour operators are gearing up to encash the growth opportunities. Affiliate.Travel will help Indian travel and tourism industry to create new success avenues with the rise of business travel in the country. 

Affiliate.Travel allows travel agents to distribute their own booking platform to their corporate clients for managing reservations. This booking platform is powered by RezLive.com’s robust booking engine with access to over 250,000+ hotels, 45000+ sightseeing options and 5000+ transfer options. The booking tool is packaged with the innovative features of RezLive.com, complete with a payment gateway for seamless payment collection from corporate clients. 

Tell us about your loyalty programmes in the B2B space. 

RezRewards is the renowned loyalty programme by RezLive.com. In 2019, over 10,000 travel agencies across 60 countries earned and redeemed reward points offered by RezRewards. Loyalty programs are associated mainly in the B2C segment and there are very few examples in the B2B space. Rezlive’s RezRewards program is a shining star in the travel segment and an example of how loyalty can be inspired among clients in the highly competitive travel industry. 

What are the trends in the tourism sector for travel agents and companies to watch in 2020? 

The travel segment has been facing a phenomenal transformation with the rapid expansion of digitalization in India. Today, a world of information is available at just a click of a button and there are immense possibilities to be explored while planning a trip. This also means that there is an overload of information that may mislead the information seeker. The tour and travel agents and operators, hence, need to tap into this business opportunity and seek ways to provide value to the travel agents and operators. 

What are the other products offered by Travel Designer Group? 

Apart from RezLive.com, we have a host of offerings serving the travel segment:

• Xmlhub.com - A global travel network providing access to the extensive global content and excellent negotiated rates to travel professionals worldwide
• Designer Packages - Designer Packages takes care of all the travel needs from leisure to business, with an incomparable experience that each of our travel partners could rely on 
• RezLive Thailand - RezLive (Thailand) is the first choice of our travel partners wanting to offer the very best experiences in Thailand to their clients. 
• Designer Indya - Designer Indya is an inbound initiative by Travel Designer Group which offers you a hassle-free luxury travel experience to India. 
• Designer Voyages - Designer Voyages is wholly dedicated towards catering the agents with inbound tours and packages to UAE. 

Tell us about your future investment, growth and expansion plans. 

We launched Rezlive.com in 2007 and it was one of the first online reservation platforms of India. Today, we are a global brand with business in more than 60 countries. Our relentless efforts on the ground and our focus to help travel agents build a sustainable business model in the midst of digital revolution has made what we are. In early 2020, we will launch our new redesigned booking platform that will take the booking experience to a higher level and will strengthen our position as one of the most innovative reservation platforms. We are also constantly evolving our product, adding new inventories through our direct contracting efforts. In the distribution front, we have established ourselves as a leading player in Middle East, South East Asia and South Asia. We are looking forward to further strengthen our position in these markets and also expanding to many other regions on the back of our strong product.