Sonu Sood launches rural B2B travel tech platform Travel Union

With a mission to support, digitally empower and build a leading travel agent community in rural India at zero investment, the firm aims to be the largest rural digital travel services platform

Bollywood actor Sonu Sood on Friday launched Travel Union, a rural business to business (B2B) travel tech platform to democratise travel services.

Travel Union members (travel agents) will work towards serving the travel needs of rural customers at every district, block and gram panchayat level. With a mission to support, digitally empower and build a leading travel agent business community in rural India at zero investment, Travel Union aims to be the largest rural digital travel services platform.

At the rural level, the travel sector has been largely unorganised with no player focusing on the needs of Indians in tier-2 cities, towns and villages. Travel Union addresses multiple unfulfilled needs of rural travel agents, small business owners and enterprises, called Travel Union Members, the primary one being the absence of travel-tech platforms designed for rural travel at the core.

The platform aggregates all available price options for a particular offering and shows Travel Union members the lowest prices they can offer their customers. It provides inventory, competitive prices, and state-of-the-art technology directly from airlines, railways, hotels, trips, wholesalers and aggregators.

It also allows for online cancellations and refunds, eliminating the long wait customers usually have to endure. Members enjoy the benefit of earning high margins due to direct booking options available with multiple travel service partners.

“During the lockdowns, I had first-hand experience of the challenges that rural Indians face when it comes to travel as well as the struggles of small business owners. The lack of tailored offerings catering to the needs of Bharat and addressing digital needs of rural citizens stayed with me. In fact, currently rural consumers have no option to pre-plan their travel and have to run to multiple operators for different kinds of travel needs. I envisioned Travel Union so that we can remove all barriers to travel and give an entrepreneurial opportunity to anyone in the nation who wants to start a career in travel industry," said Sood at the launch.

The platform is designed as a one-stop shop for travel agents across India’s hinterlands offered through an app and web portal, making it the first super-aggregator platform to meet the needs of the rural customer. The platform will give access to all trains operating in India through IRCTC, over 500 domestic and international flights, over 10,000 bus operators and more than 10 lakh hotels to its members and consumers.

Travel Union will augment the income and growth opportunities for the existing travel agents, offer an additional and steady stream of income for small business owners, provide new business opportunities for the aspirational entrepreneur and create a network of reliable Travel Union Members (travel agents) to assist the rural consumers.

The onboarding of Travel Union Members will require zero investment from them and there is no recurring cost post onboarding either, lowering the barrier of entry. Also, it offers the lowest IRCTC agent ID purchase cost. Moreover, this cost gets refunded over a period of time upon successful transactions making this ID effectively free, which is an industry-first opportunity available only to Travel Union members.

“This super aggregator app is the future of travel management, eliminating the need for multiple platforms, thus, offering 360° travel solutions in one place. It is the first and only Indian platform designed to help rural travel agents launch a profitable and successful business venture,” Sood added.

Travel Union is presently available in English and Hindi, and will be launched in 11 more Indian languages. New and upcoming offerings on the platform also include domestic and international holiday packages, visa services, forex services as well as travel/ luggage accessories.

Travel Union App is available to download on Google Play store.