How Be Fresh Ltd becomes an icon in tourism sector

By providing world class services for local and international tourists, Be Fresh Limited, a Bangladeshi travel agent based in the port city Chattogram, has become an icon in the tourism and hospitality sector of the country in only one decade.

In 2011, the company commenced its journey by providing domestic ticketing services. Two years later it added international tourism packages in its services.

Until 2015, the company used to provide services manually like other travel companies but later it digitised its entire service system with an application named Amy. The app helped the company to be one of the top travel agents in the country by reaching out to domestic and international tourists, saving their time and money.

Company officials say that it was the first travel related app in the country with 24-hour services for customers. The entire travel and ticketing platform of the company is based on this app. Since 2016, Amy has been the easiest real-time online travel agent in Bangladesh and has been recognised by all domestic and international airlines.

With the dynamic digital services of Amy, Be Fresh Limited won the US-Bangla Airlines 'Best of the Best Seller' award in 2017 for selling the most tickets on domestic and international routes. A year later, in 2019, the company was recognised as the top agent by China Southern Airlines.

The company is the top domestic ticket seller in the country and is ranked among the top three in terms of international ticket selling.

Currently, Be Fresh has more than 150,000 members who use its online services. Besides, 3,500 travel agencies of the country collect tickets from the company. It offers tickets for more than 31 airlines worldwide and have flights with the country.

Initially, the company started with only three employees, but now the number has risen to about 150.

Shamsul Islam, chairman and CEO of Be Fresh Limited, told The Business Standard, "Once travel agencies in the country were not used to providing domestic ticketing services. Back then, customers had to go to airlines offices to book tickets. I planned to invest on this service seeing the sufferings of the customers. We have done very well in this sector since we started the business. Within two years we became number one in domestic ticketing in the country."

"At the time domestic service users created demand for international tickets. Then we started international ticketing, foreign tour packages, passport and visa-processing, etc," he added.

The company remained closed for two months during the turmoil caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, it did not lay off any worker during this period. According to company officials, they are now having the best business period, after the pandemic, which has been possible because of its efficient services to customers.

Be Fresh has eight branches in the country, including in Dhaka, Chattogram, Sylhet, Cox's Bazar, Noakhali and Sandwip. It has been providing services with its own transport and trained guides. It also ensures hotel and motel services in any country of the world for its customers.

Currently, its services include visa, ticketing, hotel accommodation and automatic visa processing. It provides customers with the most advanced travel services in the developed world, according to company officials.

Shamsul Islam said, "We are working to give tourism services a new and modern look. We will further modernise the country's first online platform Amy. Customers will no longer need to select services in the app by clicking; the app will create a tour plan with their voice command."

"For example, if a customer or tourist commands- 'Amy, I will go to Singapore for a week'. Then the app will automatically plan a seven-day tour for that customer. Everything, including ticketing, accommodation, hotels, etc, will be fixed by the app as per customer's demand," he said.

This will relieve the customer of the trouble of contacting different airlines, agencies and hotels, he added.

The company is currently working on services like Umrah automation, religious tour and halal tour. Moreover, Be Rich, a subsidiary of the company, is bringing a 100% digital brokerage house named Zero One Limited. A customer will be able to trade in the brokerage house from anywhere.

On the problems faced by the hospitality sector in the country, Shamsul Islam said, "One of the obstacles to tourism in the country is money transfer. Some domestic companies book hotel-motel and airline tickets in different countries of the world, but they cannot transfer money directly."

"There is a lot of potential for eco-tourism in the country. There is not enough investment. Government facilities should be increased in this sector and policy decisions have to be made," he added.