We are in Fontinhas the old residential Portuguese colony. We understand that at one point of the year, this colony opens out to visitors opens out to tourist. They convert these houses into cafés into art galleries, the people can come here and experience old Goa and experience the Portuguese culture. This is where we are going to be meeting our next entrepreneur Swapnil Kamat.

Swapnil Kamat, CEO of trip2goa.com. wants to make trip2goa.com the obvious choice for Goa related travel, in five years.

A Commerce graduate from Goa University and an MBA from Symbiosis of Business Management, 25 years old Swapnil Kamat shifted his focus from event management to entrepreneurship after a short stint at L’Oreal. A hard core Goan at heart, Swapnil is keen to showcase his hometown through a different lens. His company trip2Goa is all set to capture the tourism market and is zooming in on all things Goan.

A huge fan of Richard Branson, Swapnil knew he had to do something different to stand out in the fast saturating Goan travel market. That vision led to the birth of trip2goa.com a website that promotes Goan with an insider’s perspective. With a lean team of seven employees across Goa and Mumbai trip2goa is your one stop shop online where you can lay your hands on all sorts of information, from the tourist hot spot from the off the beaten track locale.

Q: You started of with L'Oreal and you were brand manager there what made you turn to entrepreneur?

Kamat: I’m an entrepreneur by nature. I was always an entrepreneur. Even when I was in college, we used to do college events and I used to run a small event management company with the college events. So this spirit of enterprise is always been there. The reason why moved from L’Oreal to entrepreneurship was a huge need gap basically. Every time somebody discovered that I was from Goa the first questions that really came up, were travel related. Where do we stay? What’s a good time to go? Stuff like that.  Which got me thinking and one day in the bathroom while having a shower I was like, hey trip to Goa is it, that’s what I need to do to make a living.

Q: So how long before you actually sort off thought about it in the shower and then converted it into an actual business plan?

Kamat: 4 to 5 months, to actually start having the portal online and getting it on board. When I got back to Goa, I discovered there’s so much of potential, which we knew of already.

But once when you are thinking on a certain line, that’s when you discover there is so much more to do and Goa is just not sold in well. So we didn’t want to be one of the 8 or 9 travel portals that exist or the umpteenth travel agent that exists. We want to be the obvious choice for Goa. If you want to go to Kanyakumari, then log on to somewhere else.

Q: So it’s going to be Goa for you?

Kamat: With this brand, it is going to be Goa only.

Q: So with how much money did you actually sort off start the venture with?

Kamat: I had a clear understanding that I wanted my business to be profitable from day one. So venture capital is out of question to start with because I had no experience in the travel business.

So I thought, I need to get on a certain threshold before I can even approach anyone for expansion funding. So when I was working, I actually decided that I would need a certain amount of money.

So I lived a frugal life while I was in Bombay and of course family, was supportive. They pumped in money into the business and we kept growing with all the internal accruals. We just realized that the market is so big so we didn’t have to go in try to sell Goa really had. Every time we went to someone especially the corporates, we want a Goa-related agency to do our work because nobody can do it as well a Goan can.

Trip2goa is all about fun and adventure and fits this young turks outlook to life perfectly. Serving customers volley after volley of opportunities has helped the company to draw in Goa enthusiast. Swapnil’s winning proposition lies in the fact that he knows Goa better than any other travel operator in the region and so he can help the customers to pick the best deals. He wants to stay small in size while passing out revenues and smashing his opponents out.   

Q: See we are talking about revenues Rs 2.8 crore and Rs 4 crore is what you expect. But take the business model of how do you actually make money?

Kamat: We make the money. We have certain arrangement with hotels. So it’s commission structure we work on with the whole host of hotels. With the others, we actually make a pre-purchase of room nights and sell them. So that’s the profit that we make; the difference is the money that trip2goa makes.

Q: So it’s largely commissioned based?

Kamat: It is largely commission-based. But now we want to move in models, which is where we provide turnkey solutions for people in Goa. So when a group or corporate wants to do a conference over here, a training program here; we provide turnkeys solutions everything from travel to the accommodation, to the internal transport, to the recreation.

Q: What are the margins like as far as the business is concerned?

Kamat: The margins in the retail business, of travel business, are close to 10-12% depending on the arrangements that we have. In the corporate, which is the larger deal, the margin range is from 6-8% so those are the margins in this business.

Q: Any plans to diversify yourselves and get into hospitality because there is a link an interconnect between what you do and hospitality?

Kamat: Not hospitality as such. We are looking at it in terms of recreation and entertainment space. Kamat lifestyle, which is the holding company of trip2goa, is in process of starting another brand called ‘Jump Experience Days’. ‘Jump Experience Days’ is essentially where tomorrow you’ll be able to buy any experience across India; that’s a pan India portal.

Q: And you are looking after that as well?

Kamat: No, we are in the process of starting. Just the ideation is done; we are repudiating the team in place, which is going to start of in Bombay and move on to Delhi. So that’s jump experience for you where you can go and buy any experience that you would like to; tomorrow you’d be like want to do a chopper ride over Bombay and we’d be able to get that for you.

A perfectionist by nature Kamat wants to play every short right, he is an optimist and considers conceptualization of new ideas his biggest strength.

He is all set to explore more in terms of recreation and entertainment and sell Goa as a tourist Paradise to travelers around the world.

With his feet firm on the ground and an eye into the future sky is the limit for this young entrepreneur.

Q: What about the international domestic mix out of the 2.5 thousand people that you brought to Goa so far how many domestic and how many international?

Kamat: 100% are domestic because…

Q: Are you looking at the domestic market though?

Out of the 23 lakh people that come to Goa, 85% are domestic.

So that’s the larger chunk. I don’t want to chase the 15% that come from outside where you have a lot of organized players who are there in that businesses is already. So two years from now, we are going to take that rule where we get into that whole chartered and the foreign tourist markets.

But right now, I would like to concentrate on the 85% of domestic.

Q: You said that when you started off, you weren’t sure about VC funding because you didn’t have the experience, so on and so forth, do you need the money now or can you sustain use this in internal approvals?

Kamat: Right now don’t even if somebody offers me the money I don’t want it because I don’t think I would get the right kind of valuation right now. But two years from now I will have them chasing me so I will have that situation then.

Q: So what are the other strengths I can see confidence clearly is the one, what are the other strengths that you have as an entrepreneur?

Kamat: As an entrepreneur conceptualizing a new idea is my strength.

Q: So what will be your ideal holiday destination?

Kamat: I would like to go some place in the interiors of Goa very honestly. I want to discover a new resort, which I can sell to my people so that’s my ideal kind of holiday.