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A Rs.10,000\- question?

  There are many distinguishing factors about the Indian traveller. Globally the trend is to travel more like a nuclear unit, your immediate family, with your partner or even solo, but in India we like to travel in a group. The society group, a corporate outing with your colleagues, travelling with your religious group for a pilgrimage or even the extended family coming together for a holiday.  The logistics of planning for a family holiday is immense and can get stressful, family watsaap groups will be buzzing with ideas right from destinations to mode of travel and activities that need to be included, then there is the process of multiple working professionals getting leave, the dates have to match, the schedule of the children travelling together, their schooling, exam’s tuitions and classes get accommodated.  Once this gigantic democratic exercise concludes, the process of selecting the hotel / villa / homestay and planning the daily schedule of your holiday commences. Different po
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We are not a conventional travel company

  We go beyond conventional tourism to offer you deep dive experiences that connect you with the essence of the destination  It is our understanding that travel is a very personal experience, it is hard earned money spend to enjoy your time out the way you want. There are many tourist traps and with Social media the FOMO is real. Amidst all this clutter of places, restaurants, trails and excursions to visit and experience we offer deep dive, engaging and immersive experiences on a particular subject in the context of the destination. A multi day travel program that is well curated and thought after.  Our strength is we understand logistics and we understand the destination. We are extremely well connected with acclaimed Architects, Designers, Journalists, Historians, Artists, Chefs etc. Our itineraries have interactive sessions, discussions, walks and hands on workshops with many of them and we let the destination unfold through them all very carefully laced together to make it most co
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There is only 1 Goa in India

 Goa first came on the tourist map in the 60's as a hippie haven, probably the golden era of tourism in this tiny state. The tourists were more sensitive towards local culture and the environment. They consumed less and were happy living the life of the locals.  When the benefits of liberalisation started to trickle down and when a new and ambitious middle class started travelling, Goa witnessed mass tourism in the 90's and 2000's. There was a sudden surge of investments, construction and development, the era of unplanned tourism growth. Everyone wanted to be in Goa and everyone wanted to invest here.  The result of this era is what we experience in Goa of today, the relaxed vibe gave way to environmental degradation, overcrowding and cultural commodification, everything that this sunny seaside state was not known for.  Yet there is only 1 Goa in India and tourists still come here in hordes to experience the beaches, architecture, cuisine and the Goan vibe.  When we got the
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Konkan coast of Maharashtra

Everytime anyone thinks of a beach destination in India, Goa would pop up. Goa has captured the imagination of the market, everyone wants to come here. On the west coast apart from Goa there is Kerala which has benefited greatly from smart positioning & branding. Kerala has created a niche for itself by positioning itself as a premium cultural destination. The 2 larger states bordering Goa, Maharashtra & Karnataka have larger coastline and each of them have a unique cultural identity, markets are slowly warming up to the idea of a travel experience on the coast beyond Goa. Thanks to Instagram and Social media and the craze of being at unexplored places, guests are seeking out these unique destinations however infrastructure still needs a massive upgrade for tourists to have a relaxed holiday experience. As the economy grows we hope the policy makers and planners put into motion robust infrastructure developments that are sensitive to the ecosystem of the destination. Being base
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The Saligao Studio

  Saligao is a village in North Goa closer to the madness of Calangute and Baga. If you are driving from Panjim after crossing the historic Mandovi river and through the famous CHOGM road from Porvorim, Saligao will be the last village bordering Calngute which has the Goan essence. Not all homes here are converted into stores or restaurants, not all roads here are cluttered and not at every bend will you find someone trying to sell you something.  We cross this village on a daily basis and have admired it's charm and natural beauty but never did we think or learn more about it until we had the opportunity to conduct a settlement study here. A study of Saligao was recommended by one of its acclaimed residents Ar.Dean Dcruz who has a large and beautiful house just at the foot of a thickly vegetated mount.  So when an Architectural students group were scouting for villages to document and study we recommended Saligao unaware of the richness in character and history it had to offer. Af
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Anatomy of an Architectural Tour

We have been curating and planning architectural students tours over the past 2 decades and in this time the number of Architectural colleges have grown exponentially. It will be interesting to study the size of this market in terms of tours, competitors etc. We haven't come across this specific segment level analysis but we have many other learnings over time.  In this blog we try to articulate the anatomy of an Architectural tour, its different stakeholders and the impact these have in the overall experience.  Stakeholder 1 - The students Young and energetic and eager to explore, probably stepping out of the shadows of their parents and families for the first time. Their imagination of travel to a destination is derived from popular culture and Instagram. They don't know exactly what to expect but invariably these tours remain memorable for a long time.  Stakeholder 2 - The faculties and the management A destination is picked and finalised with an agenda that adds value to th
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Planning, organizing and coordinating an Architectural students tour

 We recently had the opportunity to organise a tour for the 7th semester students of Architecture from Manipal College. The group was travelling to Goa to case study students housing. We got on board as a travel consultant just a week before their scheduled arrival in Goa.  Some of the larger campuses in Goa are  Goa Institute of Management, designed by Ar.Brinda Somaya |  https://www.gim.ac.in/ BITS Goa campus by Ar. Hafeez Contractor |  https://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/goa/ NIT Goa New Campus, still under construction |  https://www.nitgoa.ac.in/   Within a week we had to get permissions to visit these campuses, plan the logistics and prepare a daily scheduling. 7 days may seem a lot of time to put this all together but we were under pressure because our scchedule was depended on these permissions and we were anxiously awaiting an affermative reply from the administrative department of these campuses. After all the students were traveling all the way to Goa only for these case studeis. 
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