With the aspirations of bringing alive the joy of personalized travel and building a truly special and inspiring place to work, Parik founded Enchanting Travels with Alex, in 2004. Parik lived and traveled extensively through Asia and Europe as an international junior tennis player, earned his undergraduate finance degree at The Ohio State University, USA and began his career as a consultant in Washington, D.C. He completed his MBA at the leading business school, INSEAD, in France and Singapore, before embarking on the Enchanting Travels journey. As CEO, Parik is responsible for the overall strategy, business plan, and leadership of Enchanting Travels in the USA and globally. He defines the company’s goals and directs the vision for the business. Following the acquisition of Enchanting Travels by Travelopia/KKR in 2019, Parik will also drive the transformation of the company and work with the Executive Leadership Team of Travelopia to achieve strong growth in the coming years. Parik is based in our Denver, Colorado, office.
MOST ENCHANTING TRAVEL
3am, May 21, 2005, Olakira Camp, Serengeti, Tanzania. As the roar of the lions became louder and louder, the instinctive and irrational human fears began to emerge stronger and stronger. Would the lions enter our tent? Is ‘The Ghost in the Darkness’ a true story? Would they eat us? How close are they? I could almost feel the breath of one of the lions. Curiosity overcame fear and we timidly walked towards the zipper of our window of our canvas tent and watched a pride of lions walk right through our camp that night. This exhilarating experience on my first safari in Africa had me hooked and instilled an even stronger passion for travel. I could only look up and thank my lucky stars for being able to live a dream – to travel the world and enjoy such special moments.
There is no greater joy than travel, except that of sharing this joy and passion with other travelers!
Parik Laxminarayan