The growth of online travel market in India is constantly on an upward graph especially with the ecommerce market as more and more travellers prefer online booking engines to search, compare, and purchase their packages. The online travel market expects to have a double digit growth with the number of travel startups growing in India. Social media plays a significant role in helping travellers to make the right choice through Facebook, Instagram and travel blogs. The trend is that there is a flow in bookings through mobile and apps. The online channels accounted for a significant 39% of the travel bookings in India, during 2014.
According to a recent research, more than quarter of the hotel bookings will happen online in the next couple of years and the advent of mobile has changed the complete picture. With people becoming more and more comfortable with e-commerce, online travel planning and booking is no more a cause of discomfort. This is perhaps one of the reasons that online channels accounted for a significant 39% of the travel bookings in India, during 2014.
The online travel market contributes 65-70% of the overall ecommerce market in India. The combined business from online rail booking, airline ticketing through airline sites and OTAs largely constitute the make-up of this Rs. 60,000+ Crore marketplace. India has the third largest Internet population in the world today with over 190 million users, after China with 620 million and the US with 275 million. With higher internet penetration, the growth of the online travel market has been consistently showing an upward graph.
Source : Phocuswright
Author: Manoj .S
Manoj works as Team Lead in Teknokraaft and looks into the Flights vertical primarily.