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“Safety” is certainly at the top of the list — at least in the immediate future. If customers are going to travel, they need to feel safe. “Flexibility” is another one, because until there’s a vaccine, travel providers will have to adjust their businesses to meet shifting customer demands and provide travel coverage that is responsive to their needs during the pandemic. “Education” is another. It’s important the travel companies learn and educate their customer base as much as they can from this experience to help them navigate what may lie ahead. “Innovation” is certainly on the list, because technology moves fast, and companies need to keep up. Lastly, I’ll say “Optimism”. This won’t be an easy period for travel, but a dose of cautious optimism is the need of the hour for these unprecedented times.

As part of my series about “developments in the travel industry over the next five years”, I had the pleasure of interviewing…Rajeev Shrivastava.

Rajeev Shrivastava is CEO of VisitorsCoverage Inc., an InsurTech company that simplifies the way people buy and manage their travel insurance policy online. Rajeev founded VisitorsCoverage in 2006 after successfully developing patented technology for the online search, comparison and purchase of travel insurance at a time when the rest of the industry was virtually all paper-based. Today, VisitorsCoverage offers some of the most innovative travel insurance products and solutions for consumers and businesses worldwide.

Rajeev is a serial entrepreneur leveraging his experiences and expertise in leading-edge and emerging technology, business operations, and brand strategy to create a diverse portfolio of brands. With a passion for leveraging technology to create impact, Rajeev has harnessed his deep understanding of technology to provide much-needed services for travelers and immigration communities.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Since its inception, the Internet has been my profound passion. I was fortunate enough to start my career in it back in the early days when we used to carry the browser software on a floppy disk. Over 20 years ago, when Hotmail was the only email, I was very sure that the Internet would change the way we live, work and play. When I moved to Silicon Valley in the late 1990s, and took a job working for the internet pioneer Cisco, it was as if the stars were paving the way to fulfill my passion. My experience as an immigrant motivated me to create solutions that solved the less obvious problems and hurdles faced by others like me. That’s how the online travel insurance marketplace, and VisitorsCoverage, were born.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

There are many. One in particular is worth mentioning because it helped shape my career as an entrepreneur in many ways. I wouldn’t necessarily categorize it as a fun story, but it was certainly a huge learning experience. Within months of launching VisitorsCoverage I was sued by a competitor. At the time, I was laser-focused on the mechanics of creating my business and wasn’t versed in the legal aspects and liabilities of running a business. With no prior experience dealing with lawsuits, my focus was diverted from creating solutions to dealing with a frivolous lawsuit. Fortunately, it didn’t last long and was resolved, but it taught me several lessons and skills instrumental to growing my business. Most importantly, reading, interpreting and negotiating business agreements in ways that drive the desired results. These are such vital skills for any entrepreneur that often get ignored.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

None that I can recollect.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”? Can you share a story about that?

The level of stress tolerance of course varies from person to person, but my advice is to wake up every day thinking about how you can help people and be relevant by the work you do, and not focus on how you can make money. If you accomplish the former, the latter follows. I also learned that you need to start by planning what your strategy will be to achieve the goals you have set for yourself. Hire the right team and build an ecosystem that will help you get there.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

Yes, very much so. The full credit goes to my life partner, my wife. Without her active support, none of this would have been possible. She is a cofounder and contributed in every conceivable way that she could.

Thank you for that. Let’s jump to the core of our discussion. Can you share with our readers about the innovations that you are bringing to the travel and hospitality industries?

Our primary innovation for the industry has been to simplify it. Before we arrived, the travel insurance industry was full of complexity, so our simplification mission has been full of challenges. We have addressed this across the spectrum by focusing on customer education — creating new benefits that are responsive to modern travelers needs and creating technological solutions that improve the overall customer experience, making travel insurance purchase and use clear and straightforward. Other ways we innovated was through customization — we introduced several customized insurance benefits that were a first in the industry; and technology — we are the only company in this space with patents behind our technology. We were also pioneers in creating the first SaaS B2B platform, a plug and play solution enabling any agent and broker to sell travel insurance. More recently, we debuted our most impressive customer support solution to date — “Luna” a Chatbot that leverages artificial intelligence and machine-learning capabilities providing customers a next level experience that they have come to expect.

Which “pain point” are you trying to address by introducing this innovation?

Among many, the biggest problem that we are trying to solve is how to demystify the complex world of travel insurance for everyone. All solutions we offer revolve around this central focus. We are reinventing the travel insurance experience, from customer education to after sales support and everything in between.

How do you envision that this might disrupt the status quo?

For decades, the travel insurance industry had been mired in a “one size fits all” approach. But customers come in all different stripes — they’re all individuals with differing needs.

Our solutions are geared towards helping the entire value chain in the insurance ecosystem. Travel has evolved over time, and so have the risks. Customer expectations are changing with every new version of a “Smartphone” release, if I can say so metaphorically.

Modern travelers want everything within a click of a button. The insurance industry is highly regulated and has been significantly slower to adopt changes than other industries. It remains our challenge to make the travel insurance experience as simple as an Amazon purchase or an Uber app experience.

Our efforts and solutions are very much focused in this direction. Whether it is creating custom insurance benefits or products, building plug-and-play SaaS platforms, or leveraging artificial intelligence, our primary goal is to simplify the travel insurance experience.

As you know, COVID19 changed the world as we know it. Can you share 5 examples of how travel and hospitality companies will be adjusting over the next five years to the new ways that consumers will prefer to travel?

“Safety” is certainly at the top of the list — at least in the immediate future. If customers are going to travel, they need to feel safe. “Flexibility” is another one, because until there’s a vaccine, travel providers will have to adjust their businesses to meet shifting customer demands and provide travel coverage that is responsive to their needs during the pandemic. “Education” is another. It’s important the travel companies learn and educate their customer base as much as they can from this experience to help them navigate what may lie ahead. “Innovation” is certainly on the list, because technology moves fast, and companies need to keep up. Lastly, I’ll say “Optimism”. This won’t be an easy period for travel, but a dose of cautious optimism is the need of the hour for these unprecedented times.

So long there is a human life on the earth, people will travel. You simply cannot imagine a world without travel. By mitigating or managing travel related risks we can help people ease their travel anxiety. That’s where travel insurance comes in handy, providing the much needed assurance and sense of protection from different travel risks including financial, medical, safety, and other emergencies. Travel insurance is like a tool that every traveler should keep in their first-aid kit.

You are a “travel insider”. How would you describe your “perfect vacation experience”?

The thought of a vacation conjures up words like “getting away from it all”, “relaxation”, “unplugging”, and “family fun”. A perfect vacation should be less worry, and more fun.

Can you share with our readers how have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

Let me answer your question another way: consider how goodness brings success to you! Solving real world problems and putting your education and knowledge to work is real fun, and for me, it brings me tremendous satisfaction and fulfillment. If you do it right, success will follow. At VisitorsCoverage, we took on the challenge of simplifying travel insurance and making it easy for travelers around the globe. There’s nothing more fulfilling than helping our customers out of a jam, sometimes a very serious one. The feeling of being part of their trouble-free and enjoyable trip, is a certificate of our success.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

If I could, I would create a solution to easily and effectively share “knowledge” with other like-minded people. On the internet, there is an overabundance of information, data, and content. But what is missing is a distribution model for real knowledge. This can truly transform generations.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Certainly, they can follow me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajeevshrivastav/,
and you can follow VisitorsCoverage on Facebook at facebook.com/visitorscoverage, on Twitter at @VisitorCoverage, on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/visitorscoverage/, and on Instagram at @VisitorsCoverage.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!


Rajeev Shrivastava of VisitorsCoverage: The Future of Travel in The Post Covid World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.