BULLETINS

With the help of ecommerce market, the growth of online travel market in India is constantly on an upward graph 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 start-ups growing in India. Through Facebook, Instagram and travel blogs, Social media plays a substantial role in helping travellers to make the right choice. The trend is that there is a flow in bookings through mobile and apps. Indian Online Travel Industry is growing with 49% CAGR and OTAs account for 17.5% of total gross bookings (as per Red Seer Consulting)

Expected Growth

According to Arijit Mukherjee, CEO & Founder, Findmycarrots.com online travel market is anticipated to continue double digit growth that we have seen in the past few years in spite of a relatively budding internet and credit card penetration. The coming-of-age of the disintegrated lodging inventory and their availability on the online platform will further sustain this growth story. In the opinion of Neelu Singh, Director & CEO, Ezeego1.com India’s Internet population grew from 60 million in 2009 to 190 million in 2014. It is estimated that the potential growth will be over 550 million users by 2018. The number of internet users in rural areas will touch 210 million by 2018, aiding India’s internet user base to cross 500 million by 2018. Mobile Internet users are likely to constitute between 70 to 80 percent of the total online population by 2018, as compared to around 60 to 70 percent in 2013.

Trends in Online Travel Market

Ish Jindal, Founder, Padhaaro said that there has been a rage in the standardization of budget hotel segment industry in the last one year and there will be a handful more start-ups that are going to join the scene in the Indian travel market. The next unexplored market lies in the tours and activities which has not been touched by any of the OTAs till now and remains the biggest segment where less than 5% of the transaction currently happens online. There is a lot of scope for this segment to be standardized and made transparent for the end user.

Arijit says there is a significant bias towards trying to attract users/customers using pricing. Deep pricing cuts help to attract customers but they are bargain hunters who will do business with whoever provides the best price. However over a long time frame, the trend has always been consistent over many decades in any industry. In the long run, people will give their business to those that inspire them and the ones that they trust. Neelu concludes that technology is changing the way people plan and book their travel. The surge in bookings through mobile and apps is the next big thing. People travel more frequently and tend to take short duration breaks to close-by destinations.

Courtesy : Voyagers World