India's Growing OTA Market

- Nisha Shroff

The world of travel has changed immensely over the last 20 years. Like many other industries, it’s gone from a largely manual process to an increasingly digital one. From some of the largest Online Travel Aggregators (OTAs) like MakeMyTrip - Goibibo (GoMMT), Booking.com, Expedia, Cleartrip and Yatra.com to the growing clout of newer ones like OYO Rooms, Airbnb, and Paytm, the OTA segment has grown by leaps and bounds in the travel industry. Parikshit Choudhury, Chief Business Officer, MakeMyTrip Limited, says, “As India’s digital economy takes wings, intermediary platforms play a critical role in the travel and tourism value chain as we create an avenue for higher visibility to businesses by building an online marketplace that brings unparalleled ease and efficiencies.”

Experts in the industry believe that this upsurge in the Indian online travel space in the last few years has been fuelled by many key drivers — the increase in household incomes, rise in e-commerce and digital/smartphone penetration, and the Government’s attempts to ease out on-arrival visa policies in other countries, among others.

Ritu Mehrotra, Country Head, Booking. com, says, “Technological advances coupled with growing consumer appetite will further compel the industry to go beyond conventional travel experiences as we move ahead in 2019. India as a travel market itself is nascent with only 1 in 100 people going for a vacation out of the country which is far less as compared to other emerging markets.”

OTAS: THE GROWING CLOUT