A dynamic personality who believes in letting his work speak for himself, Gaurav Dogra is a man who dons many hats. He is the Founder of Plan Your Holiday, Co-Founder of Passionals and Hon. Secretary of Travel Agents Association of India (Northern Region) and carrying each responsibility with equal vigour, dedication and passion. Here’s a brief overview of his journey and what he plans to do in the future.
Priyanka Saxena Ray
Please share a little background on how you entered the Travel Trade industry? Was it a family Business? Was this something you always wanted to do?
PLAN YOUR HOLIDAY was founded in 1992 and is part of a group of companies called S.S. Trading International, which is owned by my father Shakti Dogra. S.S. Trading is primarily into Oil Trading and Waste Management. I joined my father’s business in 1995 and since then have been handling all verticals of it, including travel.
How has the progress been of your organisation over the last decade? Many dynamics changed in the industry – how did you cope?
We have also been into corporate travel management and have periodically changed our business model based on our client’s requirements. We had anticipated the changing dynamics of the travel industry and thus we offered solutions accordingly to our client’s needs. If I am to name a few, it would include services such as self-booking tool, corporate fares, tax refund software, etc. Currently we are working on our website to offer a wide variety of holiday options.
Tell us about your love for Golf and your position in the association? Any interesting activities you carry out under this wing of the company?
Golf runs in our family – my father, myself, my kids (son and daughter). Plan Your Holiday was one of the first to start Golf Tourism Business. We effectively understand the needs and limitations of both – the golf courses and the golfers and thus we provide solutions accordingly. We also provide golf tourism and tournament solutions to corporates as well as educational institutes.
Please share information on the journey of Passionals and how is it performing today?
About two years back, Mr. Rajan Sehgal (co-founder) and I realised that our industry lacks both effective recruiting and training of human resource and we thus came up with the idea of www.passionals.in. Passionals went live on January 1, 2019 and in just a year, it is today the No.1 job website dedicated to only travel, tourism, hospitality industry professionals. The website also offers tourism expert programs and will soon be conducting online training programs.
Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
I see myself doing very much what I am doing now but on a much larger scale. Going forward, in our travel business, our complete focus will be to grow both our products, namely, www.planyourholiday.com and www.passionals.in
What do you like to do in your “free” time?
Well, I am an early riser so my day starts at 5 am and I love spending balanced amount of my time with my family, at work, at gym and playing golf!
Is there any more information that you would like to share with us?
I contribute back to the travel trade industry by working as the Honorary Secretary of Travel Agents Association of India (Northern Region). In 2020 we shall be conducting a string of programs to educate and train the human resource of our industry.
