3rd June, 2019: Ithaka Travel, the world’s first Travel Influencers driven personalised travel planning platform backed by Thomas Cook India, is now going live in Europe. So far, the platform has catered to users travelling to Thailand, Bali, UAE, Singapore, Malaysia and Turkey. With the addition of Europe, it will now cover eight more countries, namely France, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Czech Republic and Spain. The platform has officially launched its Europe offerings with their Travel Influencer community from 20th May, 2019.
In 2018, over a million applications were filed in India for short-stay visas to the continent’s Schengen Area, a 17% increase from the previous year. The number has almost doubled since 2014, almost 1.2 million travelers annually, as per data from the web portal Schengen visa info. Realising that there was a greater need for Visa and Forex related services for travellers going to Europe, Ithaka launched their Europe services in partnership with market leader Thomas Cook India. This will help Ithaka increase their customer’s base which is more than 50,000 currently.
Tapping into Europe was critical for the company to enter the next phase of its growth by catering to the steadily increasing demand. Ithaka will be going live in 6 more European countries by coming months, including Hungary, Croatia, Belgium, Greece, England and Scotland. It expects to grow its revenues to USD 2 million ARR by the end of the next quarter, and an overall growth of 10x this year as a result of the new launches.
Sharing his thoughts on this expansion spree, Rahul Singh, Co-Founder and CEO, Ithaka Travel said, “We are thrilled to have added Europe to the list of destinations Ithaka’s travellers can plan for. We had run a survey of our customers asking which destination they would want to travel next and Europe was the overwhelming favourite choice so we knew where we had to go next.”
He further added, “The Indian millennial travellers are a confident lot. They are not afraid to experiment and explore, and Europe is the ultimate aspirational destination. Interacting with the experienced Travel Influencers on Ithaka’s platform, aided by our smart product, are the best way to plan a personalised and experiential trip to Europe. Whether it be a honeymoon, the quintessential friend’s Euro trip or a solo escapade, we’ve got you covered. We have already helped more than 1,000 travellers plan their trips to Europe in the beta phase, and it is definitely a very promising market for us to be in.”
