Rayna Tours and Travels is one of the ultimate names in the UAE’s destination management domain. As with any other industry giant, Rayna Tours and Travels had its share of speculations and qualms in the unprecedented times of COVID-19 when travel and hospitality were two of the most affected sectors.
Himanshu Laul, the Managing Director of Rayna Group, joined the company during this challenging phase at the peak of the pandemic in 2020. Three years on, he has earned a unique reputation in the industry for his innovative yet contemplative growth strategies. Keep reading to learn how Himanshu did it in such a short span of time.
Himanshu Laul: Education, Career, and Experiences
Originally from the capital city of India, Delhi, Himanshu Laul was born in 1988. He has a degree in architecture (BArch) from the esteemed Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee. A year after the completion of his graduation in 2011, he launched a charming art café (namely Kuzart Lane) in Delhi, which earned a unique and loyal fan base for its amazing menu, rich flavors, and, mostly, the magnificent settings. Himanshu continued to explore the various facets of entrepreneurship as he managed businesses, including the Laully DMCC.
Himanshu Laul and Rayna Tours and Travels
Himanshu has known Rayna Tours and Travels’ CEO and co-founder, Manoj Tulsani, for quite a long time. This actually led him to the company. They were in talks to open the company’s new branch in London just before the pandemic hit. He joined the company’s main office as the Director of Business Development in May 2020, although the company had been closed by this time for an indefinite period following the government notification. It was one of the toughest times for the company, but fortunately Himanshu, along with the company’s veterans, took it in stride to tackle the challenges with a fresh, thoughtful conscience.
Putting Ideas Into Practice
With Himanshu at the helm, Rayna Tours and Travels has not only come up with some exciting ideas but has also transformed them into actionable, result-oriented steps. According to him, most marketing techniques fail because they are overly unrealistic or self-promotional. So his message was clear: to attract and build a strong community of audience members through organic strategies with the following steps.
- Strengthening the Presence on Social Media Platforms:
Rayna Tours and Travels is one of the few companies that wisely used the pandemic phase to revamp and strengthen its key resources. One of the main areas they focused on was establishing an effective social media presence by posting quality content that is more informative, interesting, and entertaining than pushy. It paid off as it boosted brand awareness and visibility.
- Ongoing Customer Engagement:
The above step helped the company mainly draw the attention of an audience keen to kick off their new travel innings in the post-COVID phase. This led to a more natural and enhanced customer engagement, creating a new brand persona for the company that is more pleasant, casual, and welcoming.
- Strategies for the Company’s Long-term Growth and Success:
With hundreds of thousands of patrons and followers, this renewed approach has allowed the company to engage and maintain its authentic audience while generating long-term results with improved website traffic and unbiased, positive reviews and rankings online. Rayna Tours and Travels’ social media accounts now serve as a trusted resource for the audience to make themselves aware of the interesting attractions around the world, plus the company’s new product or service launches and exciting contests as well as giveaways, to name a few.
Himanshu’s Current Role at Rayna Tours and Travels
Becoming a part of Rayna Tours and Travels just three years before, Himanshu has now come to be known as a trailblazer in the industry who could effortlessly integrate a breadth of businesses and cutting-edge technologies to translate them into the most exceptional travel offerings. Most recently, in October 2022, he was promoted to the position of Managing Director. In his current capacity, he, together with the company’s CEO (Manoj Tulsani) and Executive Chairman (Yasser Noman), is responsible for developing, prioritizing, and implementing the core business strategies. He also oversees the company’s overall performance while ensuring the accomplishment of its main goals. When asked about future plans, Himanshu is excited about how actively Rayna Group diversifies its business activities into new industries such as real estate, construction, cruise, digital marketing, and transport.
About Rayna Tours and Travels
Part of the Rayna Group, Rayna Tours and Travels is an ISO-certified destination management company, with its main office in Dubai and branches in various parts of the world. Founded in 2006 as a travel boutique inside a Dubai hotel by Manoj Tulsani and Kamlesh Ramchandani, it is one of the pioneers in the industry for destination management services. With more than 1.5 decades of experience, Rayna Tours caters to both business and leisure travelers. Its ever-growing product and service brochure includes worldwide hotel reservations, international visa services, luxury and traditional cruises, desert safaris, city sightseeing tours, entry tickets to significant attractions, and all-encompassing logistic solutions.
As a customer-obsessed service provider, Rayna Tours adopts a direct-to-customer strategy that assures them of maximum savings and flexibility. Therefore, most of its top-selling activities and excursions don’t have the presence of a supplier or a middleman for their execution, making it one of the most sought-after names for desert safaris, dhow cruises, and luxury yacht tours. Besides being active in the B2C market (www.raynatours.com), the company helps travel agencies, tour operators, and small businesses boost their earnings through its dedicated B2B portal, www.raynab2b.com. To ensure uninterrupted and round-the-clock functioning of the company’s websites, apps, and online deal pages, there is a dedicated in-house technical entity known as Technoheaven Consultancy.
Rayna Tours and Travels places the customers’ requirements at the forefront of all its activities. Rightly so, it has won many valued industry awards based on public voting and honest reviews, including the TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Award (continuously in 2020 and 2021) and Arabian Travel Awards for the Best Destination Management Company and the Best B2B Travel Portal.
Conclusion
A company’s success depends on its employees and, more than that, on the team who leads them. All organizations need influential leaders to grow and thrive, especially during unforeseen circumstances like the pandemic. And Rayna Tours’ leadership team proves that its key members are brilliant and capable enough to move the company forward, even in the most demanding situations.
