Born in a traditional ‘Baniya’ family where business acumen is instilled in the DNA, Siddharth Jain, CEO, Sapphire Ventures; Director, Chalo DMC and Director, Kazin Travel Consultants LLP started his entrepreneurial journey right after school with small business assignments before entering a corporate world of travel and hospitality. With the ever effervescent smile and positive attitude, Siddharth has indeed come a long way with a life partner to match his zeal. BOTT India is delighted to feature him in the Fab 40s section and share his journey with you…
Priyanka Saxena Ray
Born and brought up in Delhi, Siddharth us the youngest sibling out of 4 children, with a firm set of values in places instilled in his joint family upbringing. A sports lover from the start, he is well known in his family and friends’ circle to be the adventurous one who is always the first to come up with out of the box ideas. Creativity, they say, is his middle name!
Talking about his entry in the “working” arena he says, “My first Job was a month long summer job assignment, which I did during summer holidays of my 12th class as sales boy of an automotive product and earned a small paycheck of Rs. 3000. My real earning was an interesting experience which motivated me to take up take up my next job immediately after 12th Class in the hospitality world as a language translator on Haj flights which were then operated by Tower air jointly with Air India. This particular job gave me insight into travel and hospitality world and finally decision to choose a career in the same. Also, I can’t deny the fact that the glamour and opportunity to explore the world was an added attraction.”
Back in 1997, Siddharth was fortunate to have a computer with an internet connection at home during college days, which is what exposed him to a world full of possibilities. Ideas started building up while he was in just first year of college and in 1999, he conceptualised a vision of building up his own travel website. “Soon I pooled in all my recourses and personal savings to build my travel website to serve foreign tourist coming into India. Believe it or not I started getting queries but soon realised my mistakes and lack of operational knowledge. Its then I decided to first learn the subject and enrolled for an IATA course in Mumbai. I was so obsessed that I decided to enroll without telling my family and against the odds and will of my father, I started my journey in this industry. After completion of my course in 2000, I started my career in the travel industry to attain skills in all fields of the trade, be it operations, sales or business development. I was fortunate to work with few of top brands, such as, Carlson Wagonlit, HRG Sita, Air Sahara and Travel Guru. In 2007 I along with my wife Shalini decided to venture out to build our own brand and passionately created a retail agency – Click2travel.in,” he reminisces. The company is now solely being managed by Shalini, his better half and in the last five years, he has completely shifted to B2B space with focus on selective destinations.
A forever optimist, Siddharth feels that the market has grown and so has the cake, which is now large enough to feed everyone in the industry. The technology has undoubtedly changed the complete dynamics of travel bookings but it has also filtered down to various market segments. Today, a consumer is spoilt for choice – be it online, offline, a traditional group tour operator or a personalised service agent/ consultant. Each segment has grown and given a growth opportunity to each and every person and he is certain that the trend will continue for a very long time.
“One of the biggest challenges we face today is of our mind-set. Many tour operators and consultants have stopped believing in their ability to position themselves innovatively to distinguish demand their fee. Many of us have started to treat travel business as a commodity selling business where as it’s all about experiences, Experience for a customer starts from buying process till he returns with happy memories,” he asserts.
Given the COVID scenario, all future plans have indeed gone topsy-turvy but he has not lost hope. “My short term goal right now is to stay home stay safe and plan things for a comeback. As for the long-term, I have firm plans to grow my B2B product portfolio. But for now, I am making the most of this time with my family – my soulmate Shalini is my partner in crime, in whatever I do. My daughter Suhani is now 14 and great in contemporary dancing and son Sachit is 9, passionate with creative DIY and making best out of waste, he shares, concluding, “This is the time when neither the strongest of the species will survive; nor the most intelligent ones. The ones who survive will be the ones most adaptable to change. Our industry will bounce back soon, with a stronger come back. We all have gone through a realisation process – it was the time that required us to make changes. The situation has given us enough indications to adapt to long term and ethical models.”
