Vijay Kesavan appointed CEO at Musafir.com

Kesavan will drive Musafir.com's business strategy, which is aimed at capturing a position among the top five players in India.

Officially launched in October 2013, Musafir.com has now announced the appointment of a chief executive officer for India. The latest player in the Indian online travel agency (OTA) market has taken aboard Vijay Kesavan as CEO for its Indian operations. Kesavan will be responsible for driving Musafir.com's business strategy, which is aimed at capturing a position among the top five players in India.

Kesavan says, "With the ever increasing demand in travel and tourism industry, India offers tremendous business opportunities for a new brand like Musafir.com. Having proved its credibility in the UAE, Musafir has already made an impact in the Indian segment. I look forward to the new challenges and great experiences that the brand has to offer."

Earlier, Kesavan ran operations for Thomas Cook as senior vice-president and head of online sales and distribution. He has close to 15 years of experience in the travel industry, having worked across the sector with akbartravelsonline.com and Indigo Airlines.

At Musafir.com, he will report to Sachin Gadoya, managing director.

In an official communiqué, Gadoya says, "Being a young and innovative brand, we aspire to be among the top five OTAs in India by 2018. To achieve this ambitious goal, we continue to add talent and expertise to the organisation. We are positive that Kesavan's rich pool of knowledge would contribute towards strengthening our base and accelerating growth in India."

Kesavan started his career in 1997 with Amadeus India as sales manager. He moved on to work with Abacus International as regional sales head (2002-04) and Interglobe Technology Quotient (2004-06). He joined Indigo Airlines as head of sales in 2006 and stayed there for a year.

Kesavan's next destination was akbartravelsonline.com as chief executive officer (2007-11). His latest stint was with Thomas Cook, where he joined as SVP, online travel in 2011.