FUNDAMENTALS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP

ENTR301
PSDA 1
RESEARCH GROWTH PROFILE OF AN ENTREPRENEUR

SUBMITTED BY-:
PRACHI SHARMA (02)
ANUSHA AGARWAL (27)
JAI MEHNDIRATTA (57)
Finderbridge Tourism: Himangshu Baruah
Business: Tourism

Background information:
Himangshu Baruah is a 24 years old youth from central Assam’s
Tezpur. He is the founder and chief executive officer of
Finderbridge Tourism Pvt Ltd which is a Guwahati based start-up.
In three years, he and his team of travel entrepreneurs and
managers set out on a journey to change the face of tourism in the
Northeast of India. His two-year-old venture gained international
recognition for his promotion of North-eastern cultures, tribes, and
ethnic commodities. The 9th Entrepreneur Awards 2019 held in
Delhi in July recognized Finderbridge Tourism Pvt Ltd as the “Best
Travel Start Up of the Year”. In its very first year, he was the first
travel organization in the Northeast to be recognized as the
"Ashoka Youth Venture." As part of his hard work and efforts, his
company was selected as one of only three start-ups to be part of
the Ashoka Changemaker Change Summit 2017, which was held in
the Philippines.

BUSINESS AND OPERATIONS:

It took him a year to start his venture. He could not ignore the
misconceptions people outside northeast had about their land and
so he wanted to change the way people thought about the
Northeast in a completely new way.

WHY TOURISM?
In his second year of college, he realized how alienated the region
was from the mainland and the industry were trying to “sell”
Northeast. But he wanted to acquaint the world with the true
essence of the region. The ignorance that people residing outside
the Northeast had hurt his sentiments and so he transform this
ignorance into curiosity and make the mainlanders wonder ‘what
Northeast was’ which made him step into the tourism industry.

CHALLENGES:
one of the main challenges was to find skilled individuals and even
more difficult to find individuals who shared the same vision. It was
hard to build a team of people who would believe in him and my
start-up and so there were many temporary employees. The other
challenged that he faced was acquiring capital but His friends and
family offered to help him raise funds for the organization, which
made the process of raising capital much easier. Eventually, the
organization became self-sustaining thanks to the money he saved
from the initial tours.

EFFECT OF COVID-19 ON BUSINESS:

Tourism is one of the world's largest industries with a huge global
economic contribution. However, Covid-19 has negatively affected
the industry and Northeast is not immune to the affect. In order to
design a tourism roadmap for Northeast India post pandemic,
Tezpur University and Finderbridge, a destination management
organization based in Northeast, organised an international e-
conference on Northeast India Tourism 2021.

MOTIVATIONAL FACTOR/ FUTURE SCOPE:

Our main objective of Finderbridge is responsible tourism. They
want to recreating and redefining tourism keeping in mind
sustainable development. The majority of tourism organizations
ensure that tourists have a memorable trip while enjoying all
facilities without putting in effort to return the place to its original
state. He mentions that the organization's goal is to protect the
scenic beauty of Northeast, so that the local people can enjoy
tourism.
Himangshu said that the main motive of the organization was not
only to earn profit but also to promote responsible tourism which is
continued even today They extend authentic hospitality in home-
stays across the region, for travelers to experience different culture,
cuisine, and other such raw yet exquisite elements, making sure
that visitors have an unforgettable experience. This will not only
boost local employment, but also ensures livelihood for these
villages. They are also working on a local community development
tourism model which will soon be implemented across all eight
states of the Northeast.

He also said that they are not going to exploit the locals or deprive
them of anything to pamper the travellers. They are going to make
sincere efforts to ensure that travellers preserve the environment,
abstain from using pollutants and make memories without
disturbing the eco system of the place.