About Riya Group, History, Founder

One Customer, One Team

About the

R I Y A G R O U P

The Riya Group is a leading travel company that predominantly serves the requirements of travel partners across India, Canada, UAE and USA. With over 15 travel solutions available to customers, the Riya Group is an established brand in the travel and tourism industry with 40 plus years of experience.

GMJ Thampy is the founder and Chairman and Managing Director of the Riya Group. In 1980, he observed an influx of manpower to the Middle East. He started this top travel company to facilitate visa and air ticketing services for the workforce and their families. Today, the Riya Group has a turnover of over INR 16,000 crores, serves 75,000 plus travel agents and it is leading the industry with nine business verticals.

The Riya Group believes in improving our abilities to deliver services without compromising the quality and customer satisfaction. We are inclined to bridge the gap between the travel inventory and customers through world-class technology, expanding our range of products, and excellent service to our agents and customers.

Our energy and success is derived from our experience and talented staff. The accomplishments, awards and recognitions over the years from the travel industry fuels our vision to be the numero uno travel company globally.

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Meet the Management Team of Riya Group

The people that translate vision into reality

GMJ Thampy

Nitin John

Thomas Mathai

Manoj Samuel

Vishal Garg

Vinod Subramanian

Founder & CMD

Mr. GMJ Thampy, CMD Riya Group Enterprise established an overseas manpower wing in the 1980. Today, he has built an empire with nine business verticals. His experience and leadership skills expanded the company in the last four decades. The travel company has been successful purely because of the perseverance he has shown over the years. His constant support, motivation and foresightedness has taken Riya Group Enterprise to new benchmarks.

Vice Chairman

Mr. Nitin John is a business graduate with exceptional organisational skills, passionate about global travel transformations and has great enthusiasm to implement new endeavors. His diverse skills have allowed the organisation to secure several international corporate accounts.

Director

Mr. Mathai is an academic by choice and a people’s person by nature. With more than 25 distinctions and academic degrees and certificates to his credit, he enjoys continuous education and likes to keep himself updated with industry standards and procedures.

CEO & Director of Riya Group

With a career spanning over 3 decades, Mr Manoj Samuel is the CEO & Director of Riya Group. He spearheads the B2B travel trade vertical of the company in India. Passionate about innovation and technology advancements, his long-standing experience with GDS, airlines, and the B2B travel industry has fostered technological transformation and set new standards of delivering excellence. Having pioneered a hybrid module, he is the driving force behind introducing the tech-driven platform Riya Connect which has digitally transformed the present offline module. He also oversees the Marketing and Human Resources departments for Riya Group and his contribution to the company continues to transcend the traditional travel & tech trajectory today.

CFO

Mr. Vishal Garg has a keen sense of analysis and exceptional team management skills. He holds a degree in CA (Accounting, Finance Management & Taxation) and he is highly experienced in Financial Operations. He has extensive experience in Finance & Accounts, Planning & Analysis, Receivables Management, Fund Raising, Taxation, Audit and Reporting.

CEO- Riya Business Travel

He has over 28 years of experience in sales, marketing, business strategy and general management. He has led multinationals, viz., Jet Airways Limited, BCD Travel and Lufthansa German Airlines in varied commercial roles, with a strategic and result oriented approach. His passion, professionalism, integrity, strategic thinking and analytical skills have enabled to drive change and build formidable businesses.

GMJ ThampyFounder & CMD

Nitin JohnVice Chairman

Mr. Nitin John is a business graduate with exceptional organisational skills, is passionate about global events and has great enthusiasm to try new things. His skills have allowed the organisation to secure several international corporate accounts.

Thomas MathaiDirector

Manoj SamuelCEO & Director of Riya Group

Vishal GargChief Financial Officer

Vinod SubramanianChief Executive Officer - Riya Business Travel

Our Story

Go on a journey that spans over four decades.

1980

Under Riya Travel, set up an office in

Mumbai for Gulf Visa Procesing

1984

Acquired license from Ministry of Labour

for manpower immigration.

1992

Established Riya Travel & Tours.

First IATA office in fort, Mumbai.

2000

Opened 5 Branches in west & south of India.

Reached a company-wide turnover of $ 0.5 billion

2004

Set up office in Delhi to expand

into north & east of India

2007

Riya Holiday commenced its operations.

Riya Connect portal was set up.

23 Branches were established.

2008

Riya Marine Travel was established.

2010

Started Riya Study Abroad

Set-up offices in USA & Canada

Riya Institute of Hospitality was initiated

2012

Achieved Gross Bookings of

INR 48 billion (US$ 1 billion)

2013

Turnover reaches $1 billion

Set-up offices in UAE

2014

Riya Business Travel was started

2018

70+ location with worldwide with

$2 billion turnover.

2019

Riya Migration Consultants was started

2022

Launched Riya Visa Services

This is our story