New Delhi:3rdApril:Amid the
Covid-19 outbreak, the world’s call for travellers to returnignores the reality
of cancelled flights, lockdowns and informationblack-outs. Nearly 1,600 foreign
tourists are presently stranded in Goa alone. These are people from Germany,
Russia and other European countries.
A news
report in The Guardian stated that
there are thousands of Australians trapped in India’s dramatic lockdown. They
are running out of food and facing threats of eviction.Rising to meet the
crisis head-on is India Assist, a young digital startup that provides foreign
travellers in India, app-based verified information & on ground assistance.
In a pan-India
shout-out, supported and amplified in digital reach by many leading travel
influencers, India Assist reached out to stranded foreigners. In just two days
as many as 200 people had downloaded the app and appealed for information and
help.
India Assist
has successfully been able to assist many of these foreigners stranded in various
part of country to reach Delhi by making their travel arrangements with the
help of local authorities and verified cab services. Most of these are American
nationals. Since American evacuations are still on, we are hoping they will be
able to catch flights still being operated by Japan Airlines for a few more
days, and reach safely to their homeland.
The India
Assist team has been working 24x7 talking to each person who reached out for
help, coordinating with their embassies to procure travel passes to enable them
to reach nearest airports and resolving emotional and other issues to the best
of their abilitiesin a lockdown situation.
The IA team
has helped them recharge their mobiles phone, protected them from financial
frauds and over charging during this period. The foreigner is connected to them
24x7 through the inbuilt chat on the India Assist app. And is being provided
verified information. The service is being provided free of cost.
India Assist
is working very closely with The Travel Agent Association of India (TAAI) for
on ground support in all major cities of India.
Says Harish Khatri, the founder
of India Assist, “Because of our cutting edge technology we have created a proper
eco-system of reaching out to travellers and giving end to end solutions and
monitoring every query/solution live. Our team is trained in supporting
foreigners and their queries, which is currently adding a lot of value in
supporting stranded foreigners in these unprecedented times.”
This is a
stellar example of Digital India using technology for problem solving. The
India Assist platform is built for tourists travelling in India. It has the
capability of inbuilt chat, which helps to support multiple queries at the same
time. It can capture their live location automatically, which helps in
providing on ground assistance swiftly and smoothly. The app supports Google
and Apple platforms, and is extremely user friendly. Apart from that they have
a backend team which is monitoring the foreigners flow on the app and
responding to them 24x7 basis.
About the company
India Assist
is a start-up revolutionizing the way people travel. As cellphones become the
most important tool in planning, booking and during travels, this company
through a mobile application called ‘India Assist’, is working on improving
travel experience of foreigners visiting India. It is first of its kind on-call
solution providing ‘Assistance & Distress management’ service for the
foreign tourists.
India Assist
founder Harish Khatri and co-founder MoqierishTak identified a serious gap in
the current travel and tourism landscape, that of security and active
assistance. They found a serious lack of
a centralized system that could provide
foreigners in India verified information and trusted assistance. They
conceptualized and launched India Assist with a vision to “bridge the gap and
enhance the Indian Experience for travellers.”
Recognition
·
Opportunity
of the Year- Franchise Awards 2019
·
Innovative
Start-up of the Year- SATTE 2020
Media coverage
1.
“Top 5
Travel Tech Companies to Watch Out For”- Entrepreneur.com October 2019
2.
“Traveller
Assistance App India Assist raises $1 mn seed round”- Techcircle October 2019
3.
“India
Assist receives generous funding for its travel app”- ITIJ, October 2019
4.
“Assist
India, Make it incredible"- TravTalk, November 2019
5.
“Visiting
Delhi? Here is an app that addresses emergency situations”- Financial Express,
November 2019
6.
“How this
startup is shaping travel in 2020”- Entrepreneur Magazine (Cover Story),
December 2019
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