Alifiya Calcuttawala

OT: How did you get into this profession?

Alifiya Calcuttawala: The passion to see new places, the exotic and the lesser-known destinations, and meet new people was there, but on the backburner. Almost a decade ago, I was running a successful IT com-pany doing software export. One day, my good friend Abhik Dutta (one of the directors of The Wanderers) dropped into my office. I had some surplus space and he suggested that I start The Wanderers in Kolkata. Considering I already used to travel 3-4 times a year, the idea appealed to me and I realised this is what I most enjoyed doing: eating, drinking, talking travel — and travelling, of course. I called it quits on the software business and set up The Wanderers office in Kolkata.

OT: Your workday is…
Alifiya Calcuttawala: It’s a 24×7 job — at any point one or the other cli­ent is travelling abroad, and they are all on differ­ent time zones. A typical day starts with checking emails in the morning at 6am, before business hours are over in New Zealand and Australia. Then I have time for a 30-minute workout, household chores, to freshen up and get out — by which time the phone has already started buzz­ing. During normal working hours, it is business as usual — drafting itineraries, putting together quotations, negotiating with suppliers, paper­work for visas…In the evenings, apart from taking the usual client calls about planning a holiday, there are always some calls from a client already travelling, but needing help or stuck somewhere. Since I enjoy the work, I’m not complaining.

OT: How often do you travel yourself? Your favou­rite destinations?
Alifiya Calcuttawala: Given a choice, I would travel all the time! I do try and explore 4-5 new countries every year, and also pack in a couple of domestic trips. At The Wander­ers, we focus on lesser-known exotic destinations, hence last year we were the first Indian agency to take a group of Indians on a road trip to Mongolia — it was awesome. I also did the Reunion Islands. Favourite trips till date have been New Zealand, Mongolia and Yunnan. Of course any European destination has its own charm, but my favourite on the Continent would be Tuscany. I am shortly heading out to the Canary Islands (Spain) and then on a weeklong trip to the Costa del Sol.

OT: Where do Kolkatans like to wander these days?
Alifiya Calcuttawala: The people who come to us are evolved and discerning travellers. They have already done the normal circuits and I am really glad that they are becoming quite experimental. Earlier I had to convince clients to try new destinations, but now Kolkatans travel without boundaries — North Pole expeditions, Finland to see the Northern Lights, Colombia, Eastern Europe and Brazil of course for the “Phootball”. Croatia is quite a hot destina­tion with the 30-somethings wanting to attend the Ultra festival and the Yacht Week. Actually, plate up a destination for them and they are up for it these days. Of course, that calls for a lot of homework and research at our end!

What’s interesting is that they come to us to do a destination properly, a place they may have seen on a whirlwind trip — so 17 days in Switzer­land, 18 days in Spain, 25 days in New Zealand…

OT: How much handholding do you end up doing?
Alifiya Calcuttawala:We spoil them, and that is possibly one of the reasons why they come to us. Since we focus more on offbeat destinations and itineraries, the need for guidance is massive — right from what you will see once you get out of your hotel, to which bus to take, to even which flavour of coffee you should drink at which café. The moment a destination is reasonably com­mercialised, the information is readily available on the internet and that’s when the reliance on an agent is less. Also, as a protocol we really have intense briefing and handover sessions with clients, so that they can get involved in the planning, which eventually turns out to be a very fulfilling experience for them.

OT: Most rewarding aspect of your job?
Alifiya Calcuttawala: Well, experiential travel is what we — and I — focus on. Anybody can book a hotel and flight tickets but giving the client the right kind of experience, based on his personality, is what sets us apart — and I love doing that.

OT: When you travel, what is your preferred style of accommodation, food and activity?
Alifiya Calcuttawala: Big hotel chains are not exciting for me since you know the flavour will be a vanilla (though I definitely do inspect them for MICE, etc. when I travel). I prefer boutique hotels myself. I enjoy trying some street food and checking out random eateries to experience the local flavour. I can’t do the laze-by-the-pool routine; that’s just not me, so I just have to go check out the local sights and lose myself ‘wandering’ — after all, not all those who wander are lost!