Going places with Wandertrails

A chance to curate a unique travel experience in Kerala for attendees at a wedding, led to a eureka moment of sorts for five friends.

In 2016, those friends — Vishnu Menon K, Hari Gangadharan Nair, Narayana Menon K, Pranav Kumar Suresh, and Sruti Ramesh Chander — hit upon an idea to tap their commonality, which was love of travel, and coming together in the form of Wandertrails, with Vishnu as Chief Executive Officer.

“Incidentally, we were able to put together a fantastic trail with a range of unique and fun experiences in Kerala, involving backwaters, canoeing, fishing, and toddy-tapping, apart from a chance to enjoy local performances like Kathakali and sports like Kalaripayattu, besides local shopping and cuisine,” reminisces Narayana Menon K, who is also the Chief Marketing Officer at Wandertrails.   

“Our plan was to offer something more off the beaten track and more off the touristy track. The genesis of our initiative remains to serve unique flavours of a destination. Hence, we’ve evolved an experiential travel platform,” Narayana says.

Wandertrails’ focus rests on unveiling India’s beauty and diversity in all their glory, through a range of bespoke and nuanced offerings — segmented under experiential stays and immersive activities — in a sustainable way.

“Offerings as unique as the Munnar Tea Plantation Walk, Bangalore Food Walk, Goa Feni Trail and Kuldhara Ghost Trail are on our platform. We are active in 70 destinations across 14 states, which is expected to grow to 120 destinations across 20 states,” Narayana told DH.

Today, the platform offers more than 6,000 units, which is refreshed on a weekly basis. Over 5,500 units have been sold till date.

As a online travel aggregator platform, Wandertrails works with 4,200 partners on a commission model. “We generate content on each trail, and also go on the ground to seek new ones. Largely, partners help us in deriving new trails. We have developed an online interface where customers can book trails. Partners have also been digitally-enabled,” he says, adding that an app is also in the pipeline.

There are three types of offerings, priced between Rs 2,000 and Rs 50,000 — pick and choose, add to cart; fixed purchase and set trails; and personalisation and curation. Wandertrails has raised $1 million as seed funding and is eyeing more travellers to experience India.

“India is a beautiful, vibrant country and should be showcased. With domestic footfalls growing at 15%, and foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) at 10%, there is massive scope. We predominantly cater to the millennial market, but are seeing enough traction in FTAs too, which currently contribute 10% of our unit sales,” Narayana says.

With 61% of ecommerce activity coming from the travel space, Wandertrails is looking at a robust future.

The platform aims to bolster its technological capabilities to reduce turnaround time and respond to queries far more quickly and efficiently. A significant amount of the funds will also be invested towards undertaking extensive marketing activities across India.