Vishal Kumar, founder of Travel Xamp, was born and brought up in the small town of Muzaffarpur in Bihar. He spent his childhood there and completed his schooling there, too. Vishal was clueless about what he would do in the future. He only went to school because it was a part of his daily routine. Vishal Kumar had always been an intelligent student throughout his school life.
It was in class 11th when he realized his potential. In class 12th, he scored excellent grades. After the 12th grade, his life changed drastically. He was ambitious about pursuing his Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, but he took admission into Tourism Management because of certain circumstances. He reached Varanasi to pursue his further studies in Tourism Management at one of the well-known universities in India, the Banaras Hindu University.
But at BHU, too, he missed the seat allocation of his favorite subject in the bachelor’s degree. When he lost his chance, he decided he would never let this happen with other students. He would keep students updated on all the information related to the subject choices, processes, and procedures to opt for admission at BHU. In the first year of college, he started his unique blog named “BHU Express.”
BHU Express is now a media platform at the Banaras Hindu University. Vishal had never limited his college life only to the bookish world. He loved to explore new challenges and gain knowledge. Since childhood, he has had a keen interest in exploring the digital world. Google and other websites always fascinated him. Besides this, Vishal is an enthusiastic traveler and a creative writer, too.
In March 2020, the Government of India imposed a nationwide lockdown. Like every other citizen of India, he was also facing a quarantine situation. He learned more about Content Writing, SEO, Web Designing & App Development. His learning attitude helped him explore the internet and dig out the information related to these topics.
In November 2020, Vishal planned a trip to visit Vaishali – The First Republic of India, around 45 kilometers from his hometown, Muzaffarpur. He planned just a one-day trip, but it shocked him when he googled about the destination. There was not enough information available about it to even sustain a one-day trip!
When he visited Vaishali, he saw and explored many places of historical significance and thought that we should pinpoint such destinations over Google. This experience sparked an idea in Vishal where he realized what he would do in life. The budding entrepreneur in him who loved to explore the hidden gems in the world was bursting with joy.
Foundation of Travel Xamp
In November 2020, when the second wave of the pandemic affected India, Vishal created his website related to travel and tourism, which gave birth to Travel Xamp, his travel startup.
Travel Xamp aimed to cover details about India’s explored & unexplored destinations (phase-I) to help visitors get the exact information about hill stations and other tourist places. After that, Vishal extended his startup by connecting rural India with urban India during phase II. It gave a boom to his website, and the platform was getting a significant number of visitors every month. Today, the website covers 200+ destinations of India, and it has an average engagement of 3,00,000+ visitors every month!
Phase-III of Travel Xamp provided opportunities to local businesses. It helped local businesses grow and enjoy the maximum benefits of the traveling and tourism industry. Visitors can also get all the information regarding places they plan to visit, making the trip planning process more manageable and exciting! Travel Xamp also provides information related to IITFC Course, a digital initiative of the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India.
Vishal Kumar also uses the website to provide a platform for Travel Bloggers. He has built a tourist community where travelers can share their travel experiences. Currently, Travel Xamp works to provide well-researched & updated content about all destinations across India.
Vishal also optimized the platform to train people in SEO and content writing. Travel Xamp has already provided online training in Content Writing & SEO to 180+ students. They are also providing the personalized experiences of travelers & updated information about various destinations of India. The platform is still growing and is currently improving the user experience to help the users plan their trips more effectively.
Vishal’s family was supportive throughout this journey. Vishal hopes they continue to support him in his upcoming projects. He also credits his team members for the same. Managing a website & conducting the Training Program would not have been possible without a great team. Utkarsh Upadhyay, Mansi Sethi, Akash Kumar are a few people who are constantly helping. Along with them, many trainees like Vanshika Gupta from Jammu, Ashish Aditya from Darbhanga, Bihar, Arohi Agarwal from Ayodhya and Yash Sukhwal from Jaipur performed well and further enabled him to achieve many more milestones.
Vishal, however, faced several challenges when he was developing his platform. Since he is from a non-technical background, it was difficult for him to create a website, work over its designing, optimize the design, and fulfill other technical aspects of managing a website while focusing on his academics. But the internet came to his rescue once again, and he believes the resources present over the internet are a boon for anyone willing to learn things independently.
The impact of Covid-19 affected Travel Xamp just like it hit the travel industry. The number of visitors to Travel Xamp started decreasing. But Vishal understood the problem. He kept improving the platform and adding more relevant information that users sought, which focused on covid guidelines, traveling during a pandemic, safety standards, etc. This gradually resulted in increased visitors and growth in his business, too.
Towards the end of his story, we would like to share Vishal’s message for the youth. He says, “Getting to pursue your favorite career option can be difficult because of circumstances, but following your passion is in your hand. In this digital world, every piece of information is available on the 6-inch screen display which you have held in your hand and are reading this story on.”
Something to think about! What’s stopping you from pursuing your passion?
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