“Never did the world make a Queen of a Girl who hides in the houses, and dreams without traveling.” Says Roman Payne, Author of The Wanderess. Indeed. However, traveling for women in India is not so easy, as it may appear to be. In a country, where many women are still not permitted to leave their homes after 10 pm, traveling all on their own is nothing more than a dream. And, to break all the stereotypes and restrictions imposed on women in the country, emerged this off-beat and disruptive startup, TravlOnCards from the Lake City, Udaipur.
The idea sounds thrilling and it is connecting women across the country through the common love for traveling. It is an initiative by Monika Soni, along with co-founders Shikha, Nidhi and Ankit that imparts momentum to women to let herself free and discover newness in life!
After interacting with Monika Soni, we came to know about many unknown facts about women traveling. Also, what is the reason for working for this cause and how they plan to expand it to reach every corner in the country. Let’s get these answers from the founders themselves.
Is there any particular reason behind choosing the name TravlOnCards with the letter ‘E’ missing in it?
We skipped the ‘E’ in the travel, because we feel that all the Essential E’s of life are missing, so together we decided to get back the Excitement, the Energy, the Enthusiasm, and Everything that gives every woman Everlasting cherishing lifetime memories. By going on a trip, she can not only discover new things, but she can relax, meet new people, and make friends as well.
This idea of women traveling sounds fabulous. What is the motive behind this initiative?
TravlOnCards have been organizing various Only-Women Trips across India and outside for more than 2 years now. The motive behind only-women trip is to help women regain their lost confidence to achieve something in life. Since women play various roles in different age and in different phases of life, they get confined to the four-walls of home and kitchen, and if they are mothers along with being a working women, then they have added responsibilities of home, kids, career and everything else. Somehow, their dream to learn something new, to meet new people, to make new friends, to connect with outside world, to travel, to explore, to learn a new art, get lost.
They get busy with their responsibilities and the freedom to explore the world and being independent is lost. So, to help them come out of these four-walls, connect with other women, people, we have started an only-women travel firm.
Is there any personal experience that led you to this distinct idea of Only-Women traveling?
It all started when (as a female) I was always questioned about how I will travel, whom I will travel with, where will I stay. And I was not allowed many times to travel and explore. That is when I decided, I will have my own travel firm. And I started an Only-Women Travel Company, says Monika Soni, founder of TravlOnCards.
Have you faced any strong competition in the market yet?
Yes, competition is in every field, but we are not here to compete with other, we are here with unique solutions to various challenges faced by Women. We are not just offering Only-Women trips, we are also organizing various sessions of learning ART, Culture, also taking up social issues and helping locals. Apart from this, we are organizing Women-Entrepreneurs’ Trip soon. So our trips are not merely leisure trips, they are adding a lot of value, content and confidence among women, to help shape the society in better direction.
Do you get women travelers from Udaipur? What is the overall impact till now?
“Yeah, at the very initial stage, few of the women got interested, and they took a trip with us to Leh-Ladakh. And, we also got reviews on our Social Media accounts which were quite happening. They said they actually enjoyed and felt good to built memories for themselves. From the outside zone of Rajasthan in Ahmedabad, we have one more branch that looks at the backend works, from there also we got many girls and ladies interested in trips organized by us. So, we took them to Kerala where we also held cultural learning for them.
Initially, when we were doing pilot projects 2.5 years back, we took our first few trip to the nearby places in Rajasthan at Jaipur and Jodhpur. Then, through their appreciable reviews, we also got many other women who were interested in taking trip to Leh-Ladakh, Goa, Delhi, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Kasol, and Himachal. Till now approx. 50+women (of age group 15 to 55) have traveled with us.”
Is TravlOnCards planning to do something out of the box as of now, apart from organizing travel trips?
Along with organizing trips for women, we plan to include some add-ons like Women-Entrepreneur Trips, Wellness Trips (Yoga, Meditation, Spa), Women-Entrepreneur Talk Show.
What are the upcoming trips for all the women out there?
“As women, we love beaches, we love snow-covered hills, we love adventure, partying, dancing, shopping, spa and all, so very soon, we are heading to what we call “Maldives of India: Andaman” (8th Dec 2016, 6Days-5Nights), Thailand (6th Jan 2017, 7 Days-6 Nights), Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bir-Billing, Goa, Leh-Ladakh, Hong Kong and to many other places including various Indian and European destination in coming months. Along with that, we are also coming up with an interesting All Woman Entrepreneur Trip in the month of January, 2017 which is exclusive for women entrepreneurs of India who have a well-established business or have been doing something unique with their startup concept, the motive of these women entrepreneurs trips is to change the way entrepreneurs meet and connect.
Does TravlOnCards provide any benefit for the unprivileged women?
For the women who are financially weak or physically handicapped, we are soon to come up with the small trip in future. As sometimes it’s not possible for us to sponsor whole trip. So, we are in conversation with the people who can help out to give privilege to these women who want to travel but are uncertain with some financial and physical conditions. And, we will often look for the talented ones which are going to be easy for us to let them take the advantage on the base of their skills.
Well, to all pretty ladies, this is awesome and it is irresistible for some. For more information, you can check their Instagram and Facebook accounts and their website! You can also reach them by dropping a mail at [email protected] or dialing +91 982-882-4750.
Rashika Daga
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