The Delhiite began backpacking at the age of 20, when he took a trip to Rishikesh with his friends, in 2007. "I realised that though there were plenty of places to backpack in India, there was no platform to provide basic information," says the 24-year-old Chhugani. In July 2007, when he was doing his two-year advanced diploma in computing and business application from the British Council, he decided to open The Indian Backpacker. "I started with Rs 10,000, the money I had saved from my short, nine-month stint at a call centre in 2006-7," he says.
"Within a month, he set up the website, indianbackpacker.com, which contained information on the places to visit and stay, as well as the not-so-known tourist destinations. Initially, I was more like an agent between the backpackers and the hotels," says Chhugani.
The diploma helped him in the site's search engine optimisation, a process to improve a website or a page's visibility without paying for it. "Even before I started, we contacted an Irish company, hostelworld.com, which provided us with a booking platform. When a booking for a hostel was made from our website, it would be directed to the hostelworld website, where the booking would finally be done.
In return, we would get a commission," says Chhugani. In the backpacking community, word-of-mouth information is very important, he says. "Since I provided various facilities, people started contacting me by the end of the first year," says Chhugani.
The other break came in 2009, when he asked local people to write for the website. "These people have the most knowledge about the place and write about a lot of things that are of interest to a backpacker, such as a cheap hotel just outside the city or a restaurant that serves local food cheaply," says Chhugani. He also got a travel writer to pen down the places to backpack in, which made the website a one-stop reference for all backpackers.
Soon, the company began organising packages for backpackers. "I wanted a more independent mode of revenue," he says. Today, it contributes to about half of his annual revenue.
"I love my work. I have taken calls at 4 a.m. from backpackers, but I'm not complaining," he says. It may be the reason he doesn't regret picking up a job after completing his MBA from the Indian Institute of Planning and Management in 2009. Another reason? He makes about Rs 80,000-1.2 lakh per month on an average.
