VFS Global customers preferring premium services after COVID-19: Pranav Sinha

VFS Global, the world’s largest visa outsourcing and technology specialist working with governments and diplomatic missions worldwide, is seeing more of its clients in India opt for premium services to speed up the processing of their travel documents in the aftermath of COVID-19.

Personalised services like visa at your doorstep, digital application submission, digital document check and eVisa caught on with customers since the pandemic reached Indian shores in March 2020, Pranav Sinha, head of  VFS Global in India and South Asia, told Moneycontrol.

In India, VFS Global serves 50 clients through a network of 567 visa application centres spread over 17 locations.

The travel industry is expected to pay greater attention to digitalising business operations and more governments to integrate biometric enrolment in their visa application process, Sinha said. Edited excerpts: 

Are Indian travellers adopting more customised options/services since the outbreak of COVID-19? 

Customers have shown an increased interest in our more innovative and sophisticated services, such as the premium lounge, which offers a convenient experience within the visa application centre, and visa at your doorstep, which enables people to submit their visa applications from the comfort, convenience and safety of their home or office. The doorstep service alone has observed a 3X increase in demand since 2020, a trend we expect to grow with travellers prioritising safe travel in the future.

Changing customer expectations have fuelled the emergence and acceptance of contactless and do it yourself technologies. Services like visa at your doorstep, digital application submission, digital document check, eVisa solutions, AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) products have seen higher acceptance with customers.

What is the future of travel and tourism in India? What steps can the travel industry take to ensure rapid recovery?

Travel momentum is improving. According to a World Travel and Tourism Council and Oxford Economics study, the global travel industry recovered more than 50% of its gross travel activity by 2021 and was expected to generate $2 trillion this year. As per the World Tourism Organization’s January 2022 barometer, global tourism experienced a 4% upturn in 20221 compared to 2020 (415 million passengers vs 400 million).

The travel industry is expected to pay even more attention to digitalising business operations. From travel planning to visa applications and airports to hotels,  the industry is at the cusp of evolution towards end-to-end digital solutions.

Travellers, on their part, will seek out companies that provide them with the luxury of completing their planning and booking processes from the comfort of their homes or serviced remotely by their trusted travel agent, and without the stress of being in crowded public spaces, avoiding too many human touchpoints. Online travel planners, doorstep visa services, eVisa services, couriers for passport returns and self-check-in kiosks at airports will now become common. Travel companies will now focus on creating digital touchpoints to create a customer experience that lasts much longer than their holiday.

Public health and evolved digital and sustainability standards will be the new wheels that the travel industry runs on -- towards a smarter, safer and more sustainable future.

What are the measures being adopted by VFS Global to create a future-ready travel ecosystem for international travel? 

VFS Global has always leveraged its technological capabilities to be more future-ready and provide our clients and customers with best-in-class services. For instance, the visa application process has traditionally been paper-based, mostly involving physical interaction such as document check and submission, payment, and biometric enrolment at visa application centres. With services such as our appointment management system, digital document checks, and visa at your doorstep, we have worked towards providing applicants with a more seamless customer journey while prioritising safe travel in the future.

In the coming years, we foresee more governments integrating biometric enrolment in their visa application process to further increase the security of the process. We are ready to support them with multiple biometric solutions to meet their requirements.

The COVID-19 pandemic had badly hurt the travel and tourism industry in the last two years. Has business normalised and returned to pre-COVID levels? 

The pandemic remains volatile in the light of new variants, but it is too early to predict the impact in the coming months. Of course, the travel industry remains resilient and focuses its efforts on a safe and robust revival. At VFS Global, in 2021, we steadily resumed operations across locations keeping customer and employee health and safety as our top priority, making the visa application journey as digitally-driven as possible. Resilience and agility were vital to restart operations. By April 2020, 3,196 visa application centres ( VACs) out of our global network of 3,384 VACs were closed temporarily. However, effective December 2020, we started reopening our VACs, and today we have resumed operations for 53 client governments in 137 countries through 2,180 VACs. The steady rise in visa applications in India demonstrates a solid intent to travel. As the restart period happened to overlap with the peak students’ season in India, students comprised a large section of international travellers from India, followed by business travellers and tourists visiting families.

What are VFS Global's expansion plans for India? How many more cities in India is the company planning to open offices?

VFS Global works in accordance with its service level agreements with client governments. Our operations, locations and services are rolled out as per the mission's requirements.

What is the total strength of your workforce in India, and how is this expected to increase in the next 3-5 years?

India is our location of operations with the largest workforce at VFS Global, making up about 35% of our global employee base. Our staff strength increases in proportion to our business requirements, so it is difficult to predict growth in these numbers.

International travel opened last month. Have you seen a significant rise in visa processing requests? What is the current trend indicating in terms of Indian travellers looking to go abroad?

Even as the travel outlook remains volatile in the wake of new COVID variants and geopolitical risks, easing travel restrictions and the pent-up demand in India signals an uptick in volumes this summer. The government’s move to resume regular international flights from India is a further boost to travel sentiment, and we are hopeful of witnessing an increase in overseas travel this year. With health considerations becoming a key builder of travellers’ confidence, the availability of COVID precautionary doses would also encourage people to plan international trips from India.

How do you see India’s outbound travel shaping up over the next five years? What will be critical in the near future in the outbound travel sector?

With the resumption of international flights, the reopening of borders, and the easing of entry rules worldwide, we hope to see a healthy revival in outbound travel in the coming years. However, health and safety will remain a priority while planning travel in the foreseeable future. It is essential to rebuild travellers’ confidence by prioritising safe travel and making processes seamless through technology.

Last year, VFS Global was acquired by private equity firm Blackstone. Can we expect any major fund infusion by Blackstone into VFS Global? Are there any plans for further expansion?

In October 2021, Blackstone signed a binding agreement with EQT (another PE firm) to acquire a majority stake in VFS Global. Subject to certain regulatory approvals, the closing of the transaction is expected in the second quarter of 2022.