‘Huge opportunity to increase inbound tourism’: DreamSetGo's Monish Shah

Founded in 2019, DreamSetGo has become the go-to sports tourism company in India within a span of just four years. Boasting the biggest partnerships in global sports - from the ICC Cricket World Cup, tennis Grand Slams, the upcoming Paris Olympics 2024, and even the Rugby World Cup - the Monish Shah-led entity is feeding the insatiable appetite of sports travelers from India and elsewhere.

A former banker, Shah’s vision for DreamSetGo crystallized as an outcome of his own difficulties in purchasing authentic tickets to watch English Premier League games. It is personal experiences such as these that drive Shah to build a trusted brand that is “able to give clients great access to sporting events.”

DSG’s young team makes it a point to create and curate memorable moments for its clients – numbering 5000 travelers in 2022-23 alone. These include meet-and-greets with legends, dressing-room tours, signed merchandise as gifts, and even a ‘Tunnel Club Premiere’ – where fans can watch football teams entering the stadium up-close.

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Exploring DreamSetGo Founder Monish Shah's LinkedIn Live session

Speaking to Sportskeeda's Business of Sports in an exclusive LinkedIn Live session last week, Shah said:

“Everybody that works alongside me at DreamSetGo is a true sports lover…You’ve got to live, breathe and work sports all the time for you to be a part of DreamSetGo.”

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INR 24,000Cr (and growing) market

Shah’s bullish views on sports travel stem from a data-driven approach. He cites Ministry of Tourism statistics that estimate the sports-travel market in India was worth INR 24,000 crores in 2019, and has grown at a 14% CAGR year-on-year till now. Shah emphasizes the massive opportunity that India, in particular, offers - with its 190% growth in outbound tourism, which, according to him is the largest in Asia.

It is a known fact that disposable income among Indians has been rising. Add to that, the well-spread Indian diaspora implies that there is a demand for global “money-can’t-buy experiences.”

In terms of preferred sports for destination travel, there’s no doubt that cricket leads the pack. But other sports like tennis and F1 are seeing huge demand too. Interestingly, Shah cited the latter as a result of the success of the Netflix show, Drive to Survive.

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Outbound tourism remains dominant

With the majority of the top sporting competitions being held outside India, naturally outbound tourism generates a bulk of DreamSetGo’s revenue. But Shah predicts that inbound tourism will see a surge in coming years, especially with the ICC World Cup 2023 to be held in India later this year.

Elaborating further on why inbound sports tourism can be expected to rise, Shah said:

“We’ve got some of the best sports tournaments that are being played within the country… Hopefully over the next decade, it gives us a huge opportunity to increase the percentage of the inbound tourism market.”

Highlighting the need to enhance India-based sporting experiences, Shah noted:

“We’ve got a solid appetite of NRIs from UAE, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, UK that want to come within the country to watch sports…We want to look at sports like kabaddi, hockey, badminton...and… see how we can create engaging experiences for the domestic audience.”

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DreamSetGo's future roadmap

Interestingly, DSG aims to also partner with IPL franchises, as Shah feels there’s tremendous upside for growth within cricket as well.

Explaining DreamSetGo's future roadmap, Shah said:

“We want to keep growing the pie which has to go beyond cricket, but also keeping cricket in mind: just take that tenfolds.”

Very clearly, DreamSetGo is a dream destination for an ardent sports lover – whether it be a client or a prospective employee. No surprises then, that its office is not called “office” but “stadium,” its meeting rooms named after different sports, and its managers known as “captains.”