Voyage'25 Day 1: Jai Hind College's TravAI Shark Tank Crowns AI Thercost, Itihas VR, TripZip

Jai Hind College Concludes Day One of Voyage'25 With TravAI Shark Tank Challenge

Jai Hind College opened its 10th annual Voyage'25 festival with TravAI 2025, a Shark Tank-style showcase of student-built AI ideas for travel and hospitality. The Department of B.Voc Travel and Tourism Management set a clear agenda: use AI to make tourism more efficient, safer, and culturally responsible.

The festival is held under the patronage of Principal Dr. Vijay Dabholkar and convened by Vice Principal and Head of Department, Dr. Archana Mishra, with faculty member Ms. Khushi Burad. Industry support came from Akbar Travels, IRCTC, and the Ministry of Tourism.

Inside the Format

Student teams pitched to a panel drawn from aviation, hospitality, government, and tech. Entries were judged on innovation, feasibility, scalability, and market relevance.

The jury included Mr. Chandrashekhar Jaiswal (MTDC), Mr. Mehernosh Deboo (hospitality), Mr. Satbir Singh Narula (aviation), Mr. Guruprasad Kamath (AI strategy), and Mr. Bharat Jethani (sustainable travel-tech investment).

The Winners: What Matters for Operators

• 1st - AI Thercost (₹15,000): An AI-integrated hotel operations system to anticipate guest needs, sync departments, and improve service delivery while keeping staff-in-the-loop. Practical angle: better cross-department coordination and faster response times without losing the human touch.
• 2nd - Itihas VR (₹10,000): Immersive reconstructions of heritage sites for education and tourism. Practical angle: a new product line for destination marketing and museums, with potential for guided upsells and off-site engagement.
• 3rd - TripZip (₹5,000): An AI microservice aggregator that unifies flights, trains, buses, and local transit. Practical angle: fewer booking silos, clearer itineraries, and less friction for guests and travel desks.

Beyond the Winners: Trends Worth Watching

• AI tools for safest-route mapping and off-grid communication to support adventure travel and remote events.
• Mood-based itinerary planners and conversational companions to boost solo travel confidence and personalization.
• Deep learning proposals to reduce flight delays and improve transport efficiency.
• Sustainability and heritage preservation as core design requirements, not afterthoughts.

Why This Matters for Hospitality and Events Teams

• Operations: Use AI to forecast guest intent and trigger cross-department tasks (front office, F&B, housekeeping) from a single source of truth.
• Product: Package VR heritage content for pre-stay engagement, on-site exhibits, and educational tie-ins.
• Distribution: Explore aggregator APIs to combine air, rail, and last-mile transport into cleaner confirmations and fewer handoffs.
• Safety: Pilot route-risk scoring and offline comms for tours, MICE movements, and high-variance itineraries.
• Training: Upskill teams on prompt-led SOPs so staff can co-pilot with AI instead of working around it.

Who Made It Happen

Day one was coordinated by student event heads Aditya Sawalakhe, Madhura Jangam, Ishita Dey, Akansha Pansare, Neelakshi Chaudhary, Balram Ji, Behraam Bulsara, Faiz Shaikh, Aayush Singh, and Arsalaan Mulla. Their work ensured a smooth start to the three-day festival, which opened on September 17.

Partners and Support

TravAI 2025 was supported by leading organisations, including IRCTC and the Ministry of Tourism. Learn more about the Ministry's initiatives at tourism.gov.in and explore IRCTC services at irctc.co.in.

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