India Assist: Making Your Travel Safe and Pleasurable

India is an exotic travel destination,  one of UNESCO’s leading heritage sites which includes the world-famous Taj Mahal. It is a nation with tremendous diversity of  terrain, culture and history. Every facet of its being has thousands of stories to tell. It intrigues and fascinates travellers from world over.

Millions of foreign tourists come to India every year. According to a report by FICCI, India’s inbound tourism will touch Rs 35 trillion by 2029! Yet, many travelers still remain concerned about the safety aspects, about the plausible travel experience the country has to offer.

India Assist, a mobile application startup has come up with solutions to revolutionize the way people travel. It works on improving the travel experience of  people  visiting India by providing an on-call ‘Assistance & Distress management’ service.

Inside the App: India Assist

India Assist’s core product offers assistance and distress management service via a subscription-based phone app. It assists its users with services that include verified information and personalized assistance through its on-ground team in medical emergencies, theft, loss, altercation, and transit.

The App has a Meet and Greet Service feature, wherein it provides tourists a pick and drop service from various public transport places to their point of destination. The company’s on-ground team escort travelers to ensure safe travel even at odd hours. By constantly working with its team, India Assist ensures that its staff is compassionate. Its ‘Help First’ motto ingrained within every member ensures that the subscriber is put at ease and comforted.

The App experience is a B2C model which is downloaded and used directly by the foreign traveller for an enriching and incredible experience during their visit to our country by means of providing assistance through human interaction (over call and in person).

However, the stakeholders of this product are part of the B2B model. It is relevant to the entire travel trade universe in India as all service providers, whether they are airlines, hotels, travel agents, will want the inbound traveler to feel safe and secure in the country and will want to deliver the best travel experience to their clients.

United with a Purpose

India Assist was founded in 2017, however, its inception happened way back in 2014, when its Founder, Harish Khatri was traveling to the USA. Harish interacted with many people who were extremely intrigued and excited about India, but had doubts about the country’s safety aspects. Everyone wanted to visit India but were unsure and uncertain of navigating within the complex country.

Harish and Co-Founder of India Assist, Moqierish Tak both being avid travelers, connected due to their common experience and love for Travel and Sports. They identified a serious gap in the travel and tourism landscape, that of security and active on-ground assistance for travellers which is lacking almost everywhere and is a global issue.

Harish and Moqierish understood how the lack of security and active assistance restricted tourists from enjoying their travel within the country. They also recognized that no such assistance existed at the moment, and finding relevant information was a long and tedious process.

With a desire to make assistance easily available to inbound travelers in India, and guide tourists through verified information, both left their successful careers in Sports & Events, to provide tourists in India a unique and convenient experience. They conceptualized and launched India Assist with a vision to ‘bridge the gap and enhance the Indian Experience for travelers.’

Conquering Challenges along the Way

The road to becoming one of the most sought after travel app wasn’t without hurdles for India Assist. For the company, its biggest challenge was not having a template to follow while developing the App and its service-end.

Without an investor on-board, it was difficult for the company and to meet its expectations vs the cost. However, the team was determined not to compromise. In the words of Harish, “We were determined that we will not compromise and give a half-baked product to our customers. Thankfully once investors started believing in our vision and product, things eased out. It took us almost 2 years to perfect the technology that we now work with, and we are constantly upgrading it for a better user experience.” 

Aiding the Travel Industry

According to India Assist, the major challenges faced by the Travel and Tourist Industry in India are at two levels. First, the perception of foreigners about India regarding security and safety threats, crimes against women, unreliable transportation, etc. Two, the lack of verified assistance and verified information.

By providing verified assistance and information, India Assist is filling the tourism gap. It hopes that once foreigners start receiving appropriate assistance, they will view India as a responsible tourism destination.

Empathy lies at the core of India Assist. It is a guiding force behind the development of the company’s product. Every service, action and initiative is focused towards benefiting the tourist in terms of making their life easy while they travel.

Envisioning the Future

India Assist has successfully launched on both Google Play store and the Apple App store and have the services currently available in Delhi NCR. The company will soon make its services available in Jaipur and Agra, but do not envisage its market at a city or country level. It considers the planet as its market. The company has used this as an underlying framework for developing its product which will have global usage. It states that it took three years to develop world-class technology. This product can be offered in any part of the world to any customer. The company is planning to implement the product in a few countries by the end of 2020.

India Assist constantly works on adding more value-added services to its product basket. It intends to add a variety of hyperlocal services on a city level that will showcase the unique flavor and the offerings of the city itself.

An Inspiring Message

According to the company, all stakeholders like airlines, hotels, travel agents, OTAs, Government authorities, etc. need to support the cause of assistance to travelers. India Assist aims to collaborate with  all  segments of the travel industry to take care of their customers whenever they need any assistance, and enhance the India experience for everyone.

The start-up team, led by the two founders Harish and Moqierish, have a motivational message for the Indian Travel and Tourism Industry by saying, “Let us together make India a great and safe destination to travel.”