“The travel industry has been the hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Sarthak Sharma, founder, AutoForSure.
He said with people mostly staying indoors, the industry is staring at bankruptcy, closure of businesses and mass unemployment. The capital of travel agents has been wiped out, income and wealth have been eroded, and local drivers are staring at job loss, he said.
“The pandemic has sounded the death knell for the travel industry and we have never seen a meltdown of this measure in the past,” said Sharma. Business for travel agents shut down in February, much before other businesses closed shop at the end of March, he added.
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Sharma said, "We will continue to improve our cost structures. The real focus of 2021 will be to keep the lessons of 2020 unimpaired and restart the growth engine. We updated our processes and systems for partners and customers in 2020. This gives me confidence that we will capture more growth without necessarily increasing the cost structure as the market bounces back. We are multiplying down on the product and tech advances to scale. For example, data sciences and product technology investments will continue to be very deep in 2021. We are working towards creating a business that is respected and appreciated by partners and customers. We will come out of this crisis much stronger than we entered it. Having said that, just because capital is available now, it does not mean capital has to be used. As a founder, my focus remains on ensuring that we are taking the company towards profitability. The year 2021 will uncover the story of a resurgent AutoForSure.”
