There’s an emerging trend among young travellers to explore destinations beyond the Taj Mahal, the backwaters of Kerala or the palaces in Rajasthan. Co-founders and twin brothers Ankit & Apoorv Karki, 27, saw this emerging opportunity a little over a year ago when they decided to establish Eccetrav, India’s online marketplace for offbeat travel. If you love discovering unknown destinations, you’ll love it!
We caught up with Ankit to know more about their plans! Ankit, a hardcore traveller and adventure specialist, aims to help travellers explore India, that has been hiding behind a veil all these years. The idea sprung out from his travel diaries, says Ankit.
“If you don’t find me in my office table, you’ll probably find me rambling through the narrow valleys of upper Himalayas”
They’ve managed to garner quite a following on social media with over 67,000 likes on their Facebook page. Viral content works best on social media, according to Ankit. “Travel is driven out of passion and lot of socio-economic factors affect it. People love travel, love sharing and being connected over travel.”
By documenting their travel escapades on social media, their reach is organic (without spending money). One of their posts was shared a whopping 40,000 times!
“The book theories of Do’s & Don’ts of trekking don’t really work in massive altitudes like the ones in Himalayas. Each day with my expeditions, I understand the geography and thereby, form survival tactics to pass them on to fellow travellers”.
Having a penchant for economics and finance, Ankit decided to create do something with his passion. “Coming from a non-technical background, entering into a .com travel business, hiring the right technical people was difficult”, says Ankit.
Having successfully piloted in three states – Uttarakhand, Himachal & Kashmir, they’re currently looking to add more vendors from unexplored locations. Next year, the plan is to add the North Eastern states for exclusive off-beat locations.
Eccentric Travels, is one of many travel businesses in India which collect payments for their bookings with an Instamojo link like this: http://imojo.in/e27p3l. Sign up here to collect payments with Instamojo.
