In January 2017, Anish Pednekar founded DestinationNXT, a travel company with an unpretentious yet ambitious mission to craft bespoke experiences in the Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, and Exhibitions (MICE) segment. With a clientele spanning pharmaceuticals, FMCG, BFSI, and other industries, this small, quirky business has quietly become a trusted partner for corporates navigating the often chaotic world of professional incentive travel. The journey, as Anish likes to say, has only just begun.
Anish is no stranger to the world of tourism and hospitality. His career is dotted with marquee names like Hyatt Hotels, Thomas Cook, and SOTC. But the seeds of his entrepreneurial journey were sown long before he stepped into these corporate corridors. During his high school years, as classmates laboured over textbooks, Anish gravitated toward vocational subjects. “The classroom approach never appealed to me,” he explains. That instinct led him to Goa’s Institute of Hotel Management, where he earned a degree in Hospitality and Hotel Administration, and later to the grind of hotel operations at the Grand Hyatt in Mumbai. He spent three years in hotel operations and went on to do his Master’s in Business Administration. From there, he made the leap to sales, then to the MICE department – a trajectory that combined his knack for operational logistics with a people-first mindset.
In conversation, Anish is frugal with his words. Asked why he chose entrepreneurship, he points to freedom and responsibility as the primary lures. “The independence to close my clients and operate my groups myself appealed to me,” he says. His motivation was as much about his clients as it was about the gaps he saw in big travel firms, where a mass-market approach often left the end traveller underserved.
An emphasis on relationships and a culture of ownership
DestinationNXT was his answer: a small, boutique firm where relationships, not numbers, drive the business.
It is a philosophy that extends to his company’s culture, whether those relationships are with travellers, employees, clients, or suppliers. Rejecting traditional hierarchies, DestinationNXT runs on what Anish calls a “relaxed and productive” ethos. Team members, from industry veterans to fresh graduates, are empowered to make decisions, a rarity in an industry defined by its rigid protocols and structures. This fluidity, he believes, fosters ownership and creativity.
Clients, meanwhile, benefit from DestinationNXT’s nimbleness. The company boasts turnaround times and customisations that larger players often can’t match. “Syncing our goals with our clients’ has always resulted in fruitful relationships,” he says.
As a travel enthusiast himself, Anish always wants the guests on his trips to have memorable experiences. It’s part of why he decided to take the path less travelled, stepping away from big travel companies to start his own small business. Travel, for whatever purpose, can be a deeply rewarding experience, but with “a mass training approach to it without a robust training infrastructure, in the long run, the consumer suffers.” In setting up his own boutique agency, he could ensure that every trip bore the unmistakable imprint of care and genuine intent.
“Delivering these transformative travel experiences is why I got into this business, but the customers I’ve met along the way are why I stay,” he says with quiet pride. It is a sentiment validated by an impressive track record: DestinationNXT, Anish reiterates, has never lost a client to service issues or project missteps.
This unbroken streak isn’t merely a point of pride. In an industry as unpredictable as travel, the trust and appreciation of his clients fuel Anish’s resolve to navigate even the most turbulent times.
The DestinationNXT team is an ensemble of experience designers and travel coordinators who invariably build a unique camaraderie with customers. The company actively cultivates this rapport, crafting not just travel itineraries but enduring relationships.
Anish believes this is a result of the company’s deliberately flat structure. “Every team member is equipped to make decisions related to their delegates and projects,” he says. “Even freshers find it easier to fit in and perform without the additional red tape.” It is a deliberate inversion of the corporate norm, designed to ensure that each person, seasoned or just starting out, feels a sense of ownership.
This environment of grace and ownership extends to all of DestinationNXT’s relationships. “We treat our suppliers the same way we expect to be treated by our clients,” Anish notes, distilling his approach to a simple yet profound equation. This ethos, born of small-business intimacy, fosters an engaged team, solid partnerships, and a culture of reciprocity. It has allowed this nimble operation to go toe-to-toe with industry behemoths, armed with little more than an obsession for human details often overlooked in larger firms.
Riding out the pandemic
Anish dreams of building DestinationNXT into a brand synonymous with genuine service and deeply satisfied customers and guests, a goal he says is far more meaningful than a balance sheet swollen with profits. His conviction is born of resilience. When the pandemic swept across the globe in 2020, the travel industry – DestinationNXT included – came to a screeching halt. Overheads loomed, revenues evaporated, and uncertainty reigned. Yet, in the depths of “The Great Lockdown,” Anish refused to buckle. He was confident, as with all things good or bad, this too would pass. Terrible as the pandemic was, Anish’s predictions were right: only a couple of years later, travel had already exceeded pre-pandemic levels. Over four years down the line now, we ask him about the challenges faced; he dismisses them as nothing more than a “blip.”
On the future of travel
Today, Anish wants to do more meaningful work – be it for business or leisure, travel should spark joy. He’s excited by some of the trends he sees in the tourism and MICE industries today. “Itineraries are focusing more on traveller experiences rather than ferrying guests through a destination with a cookie-cutter itinerary.” Clients, he notes, are no longer chasing the cheapest deals – they want the “wow” factor. Anish is glad that both corporate decision-makers and corporate travellers are finally coming around to an approach he has always advocated for.
As we begin to wrap up our chat, Anish seems lost in contemplation. It’s easy to guess where his thoughts are headed. After all, the tag line of DestinationNXT is as much a personal credo as it is a professional one: Where next?
