Online travel expected to make a fortune for Indian travel sites

Travel firms are expecting a substantial growth of minimum 20 per cent, with a few major players even anticipating a three-digit growth. Managing your travel plan has been made stress-free with the e-travel facility. Online travel services has made mobility more prompt and easy where you can avail services at the click of a button. Not only benefiting the travelers, e-travel has been able to strike it rich for the Indian travel sites as well, including make my trip, clear trip,etc,. Expected to top $10 bn in bookings (more than Rs 720 billion at the current exchange rate) the travel agents are being profited by the online services.

Firms are expecting a substantial growth of minimum 20 per cent, with some major players even anticipating a three-digit growth. Confining to the practices of the digital era, the online travel sites have multifold advantages. The segment players such as Paytm, EaseMyTrip, etc., have seen a rise in travel booking as high as about $5 billion. The ballooning demand for flights, hotels, and travel packages is making the segment strong. The second half of the year is a boosting travel season due to festival period and New Year’s.

Aditya Agarwal, head of corporate strategy at Cleartrip, said smart phones were bringing more people online. “India is also seeing a change in its travel behavior with masses taking up air travel and staying in hotels like never before. In general, we see more people wanting convenience in travel bookings,” he said. The average Indian traveler, he said, takes two trips a year whereas in developed countries this average is close to six trips a year, adding that growth is expected to continue.

With Nasdaq-listed Make My Trip, and Yatra as the largest and second largest on the growth graph, the rate is substantial at of 27 and 30 per cent respectively.

In an attempt to gather the small and rural clients, the OTA’s have been trying to reach local masses through native linguistics. The increase in bookings also meant a significant reduction in overall costs for the OTAs, further reducing the losses.

Paytm, a recent entry in online travel, is anticipating a double profit on the value of online bookings after a threefold increase in 2018. “A majority of our newly acquired customers have never booked their travel online. Our deep penetration in tier II and tier III cities is helping users transition to online. Paytm’s rapid adoption rates, and the current small share of online bookings for categories like hotels and bus tickets leads us to believe there is tremendous room for growth,” said Abhishek Rajan, vice-president at Paytm.

What benefits does online travel portals bring to the travelers?

1. Time and cost efficiency: Having a round-the-clock availability, e-travel saves time, effort and money and also delivers wider options.
2. Expert guidance: Online bookings on various travel sites bring plethora of options and recommendations to choose form.
3. Regional travel made easy Worried about traveling to a new place with no prior knowledge? E-travel can also help you get an insider’s advice into planning your inter or intra country trip.

Online travel service is ready to sabotage the tradition mode of travel bookings with the added advantages and ease of travelling it offers.