DIY generation: Going Places
Chandela and Jhala launched Lets Trip Cycle Tours in 2015, investing Rs 1.5 lakh from their savings to buy five bicycles.
Working with a travel company in Udaipur in 2015, Bhawani Singh Chandela and Dushyant Singh Jhala, classmates from Ajmer's Mayo College, realised that every tour they led was to the touristy place-predictable and boring.
So when a British couple insisted on doing a tour differently, Chandela and Jhala jumped into the fray. With borrowed bicycles, they organised a cycle tour for the couple.
"There is so much more to see than the hackneyed places covered in tour itineraries," says Chandela. "It's better done on a bicycle as you can see things in detail."
Chandela and Jhala launched Lets Trip Cycle Tours in 2015, investing Rs 1.5 lakh from their savings to buy five bicycles. Their families resisted, though. "My family couldn't understand what we would do with cycles," recalls Chandela. "They were really upset when we quit jobs to start our own venture."
Today, the company organises cycling trips in Maharashtra (Panchgani), Rajasthan and Ladakh. Most of the clients are international, though the number of Indians has steadily increased from about 5 per cent in 2015 to about 35 per cent.
"Cycling is a culture in the West whereas in India, people have just started enjoying it," says Chandela enroute a tour from Delhi to Udaipur via Pushkar.
Lets Trip makes a profit of about Rs 25 lakh annually. There are hardly any overhead costs besides operating the back-up vehicle and maintenance of the bicycles.
"Tour companies are now seeking us out to offer the same business they couldn't understand two years ago," says Jhala, relishing the disruption they have caused in the industry.