Kangaroo Island is one of the most picturesque locations in all of Australia. Located off the mainland of South Australia, south-west of Adelaide, the island promises breathtaking views and equally impressive wildlife. Almost 2,000km away from Kangaroo Island is a region called the Red Centre, whose dusty and rugged mountain ranges and gorges are as deserted as they are delightful. A small group of US tourists, based out of Los Angeles and Denver, wanted to visit Kangaroo Island and Red Centre as part of a bespoke experience in Australia. However, this isn’t the sort of itinerary travel companies are normally equipped to handle. Unless that travel company happens to be thousands of miles away in Kolkata, with a new office in Jodhpur Park.
“At Flying Squirrel Holidays, we’ve recently completed 10 years of bespoke, tailor-made travel services. proving that the best travel plans are about attention to detail,” says Niloy Nag, founder and managing partner of Flying Squirrel Holidays. “We became the go-to option for the LA and Denver group for their wishlist in Australia because they had previously enjoyed a fabulous time with us during a four-week trip to Italy, Spain and Morocco along with two trips to India,” explains Niloy, before chuckling and adding: “What they wanted in Australia was rare. Out of every 100 queries for Australia, we get one or two of such kind. But we were able to pull it off thanks to a dedicated team and our extensive ecosystem of local partners around the world.”
With Flying Squirrel Holidays, you don’t have to ‘take a vacation to recover from your vacation!’
“Flying Squirrel is about discovering little secrets in lands both foreign and familiar,” says Niloy Nag Soumyajit Dey
When My Kolkata last spoke to Niloy in June 2022, Flying Squirrel Holidays was just coming out of the biggest shock to the global travel industry this century — the Covid-19 pandemic. In the two and a half years since, not only has Flying Squirrel Holidays grown in scale and revenue but it has also diversified its clientele — catering to more than 11,000 travellers across India, the UAE, Australia, Germany, the UK, the US, and more. “From wellness therapies and wine trails to beach, wildlife and culinary journeys, Flying Squirrel Holidays is about discovering little secrets in lands both foreign and familiar,” says Niloy. Starting out through bootstrapping, Flying Squirrel Holidays has resisted investors because Niloy did not want to change the organisation’s ethos: “We deliver something that you won’t find in 90 per cent of the travel market. There may be some who are sceptical about curated travel, but we want to stick to our ways.”
With a growing team, most of whom work out of the office in Kolkata, Flying Squirrel Holidays believes in a collaborative and dynamic work culture. Niloy has helmed the organisation with the goal of making travellers feel curious and comfortable, allowing them to soak in a new place without thinking of tourism as one more chore. “Quite a few large travel companies make their travel programmes formulaic in order to optimise and cut costs. When they take you to, say, Venice, they don’t put you up in Venice. They put you up in Padua, which is about an hour away from Venice. They pack your itinerary with so many things that you end up exhausted. They start their days very early — breakfast is at 7am and the tour bus leaves at 8am. Most nights you come back to the hotel exhausted and before you know it, it’s time to pack again to visit another place the next morning. It’s so draining that you have to take a vacation to recover from your vacation!”
‘Dubai is the number one overseas destination for Indian travellers’
According to Niloy, Dubai has overtaken Bangkok in terms of popularity among Indian tourists TT archives
How does Flying Squirrel Holidays do things differently? “For starters, we choose our hotels carefully, as close as possible to the city centre. So that you can immerse yourself in the city life during the evenings. Our schedules are more relaxed. We have a policy of ensuring that you spend at least two, if not three, nights in the same city. Your body takes time to get used to a place, to get accustomed to a bed. Travelling is about seeing, smelling and breathing the essence of a place. You can’t do that if you’re covering 10 cities in two weeks.”
According to Niloy, international travel among Indians — both in India and among the diaspora — shows no signs of stopping: “Dubai has replaced Bangkok as the number one overseas destination for Indians. Vietnam is also very popular. More and more Indians are also flocking to the likes of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. Travelling in small groups — whether with friends or family or even strangers — is the most preferred option.”
When it comes to travel in India, including foreigners getting their first taste of the country, Niloy feels the traditional hotspots still rule the roost: “The golden triangle (Delhi-Agra-Jaipur) still draws the most visitors, followed by south India, chiefly Kerala. For domestic tourists, the Northeast is also a favourite haunt. But that’s also where we are trying to draw more attention to Arunachal and not just Meghalaya and Sikkim.”
‘If your flight lands in Paris at 4am, you’ll need Flying Squirrel Holidays, not a chatbot’
Niloy champions the role of the human touch in travel, be it a trip to Paris or Purulia TT archives
As a globetrotter himself, Niloy is keenly aware that memorable travel is about seeking and finding meaning. This is why Flying Squirrel Holidays is increasingly building community experiences for its clients, especially across Bengal and beyond — “from engaging with local school students in grassroots education in the Ajodhya Hills in Purulia to exploring the intricacies of the textile industry in Bishnupur, from cycling through Kolkata to understand the environmental importance of the wetlands to learning diving as a 50-year-old in the Andaman Islands, there is a lot we do to make travel local, sustainable and fun.”
The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR), often seen as an existential challenge to the established order in travel and tourism, has not fazed Niloy. “I see technology as an enabler. In fact, all our consultants are armed with AI tools to better serve our clients. We’re also working on creating a VR room, where prospective travellers can get a 3D preview of their destinations,” describes Niloy, before substantiating with a smile: “There are still lots of things AI can’t do on its own. If your flight lands in Paris at 4am and you only have a few hours to spare, a chatbot won’t help you much. You’ll need expert human advisers at Flying Squirrel Holidays to tell you how to make the most of your time.”
‘Good travel is about an open mind and a fulfilled heart’
Niloy wants Flying Squirrel Holidays to incorporate Gen AI more effectively in the long run Soumyajit Dey
Going forward, Niloy wants Flying Squirrel Holidays to expand its physical presence beyond Kolkata. Nationally, Kolkata still leads the way in terms of clients, but is closely followed by Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and Pune. He is also ambitious about integrating Gen AI more effectively to better predict travel preferences: “If your last two trips are to Greece and Turkey, with a brief stay in Kashmir sometime in between, can we predict where you should go next? Gen AI is going to be useful in this context, but it definitely needs the human touch.”
The human touch, after all, is what sets Flying Squirrel Holidays apart. More than cheap deals, Instagrammable moments or community experiences, travel curation is about care, about a shared passion between curator and client for discovery. Or, as Niloy puts it: “Good travel is about an open mind and a fulfilled heart. At Flying Squirrel Holidays, we guarantee both!”
