It would be safe to call him the “hero” of the travel trade not just for his looks and polite demeanour but also the manner in which he has turned around ADTOI and won a National Tourism Award for his Company. A young achiever, who strongly believes in keeping the work-life balance and prides in doing things “differently”, Chetan Gupta, Director – Sales and Marketing, R G Destinations Pvt. Ltd.; Hony. General Secretary, Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI); member of CII and board member of FAITH, is indeed a ‘Young Turk’ whom we are happy to feature exclusively in BOTT Fab 40s.
Priyanka Saxena Ray
There are not many men in their 40s who can claim to be living in the same house that they were born in – Chetan can, which is perhaps why he comes so well-equipped with a strong sense of family values. Eldest of the three brothers, Chetan, who initially had no plans to enter the travel industry, is one of the few Oracle Verified Professionals (OCP) the country has since it’s a rare course that he did but did not pursue a career in.
“I was always sure that I wanted to be an entrepreneur – the question was doing what. After trying my hand at a couple of odd jobs I joined Hotel Connaught as Sales Manager as I used to find the hotel industry very glamorous. After working there for 4 years, I got my PR and moved to Australia to work for Mirvac Group of Hotels (Now Accor) wherein I was in-charge of 14 hotels in NSW. I worked in Australia for three and half years before coming back to India and starting my own company in 2006,” he reminisces with a smile.
Floated in his daughter’s name, Chetan started operations at R.G. Destinations from a single table space, selling domestic holidays. What he has today is a company with a turnover of 8 crore, a double digit staff and more than 12,000 clients whom he has served over the years. His ‘better half’ actively handles the operations with him at the work place. R.G. Destinations currently has offices in Australia, Canada and soon in Singapore with staff on the company pay roll. From a humble beginning to winning the National Tourism Award in 2018 and handling a corporate client base of 32 companies as clients, Chetan has covered a magnitude of distance, which he believes is just the tip of the iceberg as there is lots more to achieve.
“There is no dearth of business – it’s all out there. People are still travelling, infact more than before and it is this growth that we have to tap. MMT or any other online booking platform is mostly used to booking tickets or hotel packages. But for MICE, people might check the rate online before but they would prefer to deal with an agent only. Thus I believe there is no dearth of business options, if one is open to give value for money and not be greedy for commission,” shares the dynamic business person who has achieved so much in such little time.
His journey in the trade association industry started in 2008-09 when he became a member of ADTOI – Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India. However, he came in the limelight after becoming an EC member in 2012 and then General Secretary in 2016 – till date. “A lot of work has been done at ADTOI. We have 14 committees now for handling different departments with different heads for each committee. We have 11 chapters now and plans are afoot to add more. On the whole the image of ADTOI has changed much and even the Ministry of Tourism has started recognising the work we do. The focus of the PM also is now on promoting domestic tourism and we are trying our best in not just improving the image of the association through our work but also that of our country to as to encourage more and more people to travel within India,” he concludes.
