To beat off season blues along with the recent slump in the travel and tourism sector, online travel agencies (OTA) have launched a slew of offers to woo customers. Consider this: Makemytrip.com recently launched airfares at Rs 0; a new kid on the block, Ezeego1.com had hotel rooms for Rs 2 while Travelguru.com was slightly more expensive at Rs 50. While Cleartrip.com was offering free air tickets between Delhi and Mumbai on every international air booking, Ezeego1 had Versace and Esprit coupons handy.
?This is a non-season in which demand is usually slow. With high inflation and economic turmoil, demand is even slower this time. Moreover, travel advisories of various countries have also issued warnings against India,? said Shaun Dubash, VP, business development, hotels, Travelguru. He adds that given the topsy-turvy scenario, it is essential to pick up demand by offering exciting deals.
Not just offers, OTA have been also diversifying their services in the area of hotels, railways, buses, car rentals among others to avoid being hit by the downturn in the air bookings. For instance, Makemytrip.com expects only 25% of its revenues to come from domestic air bookings by next year. ?Currently, half of our revenues come from air bookings while the other half come from hotel bookings and tour packages,? said Deep Kalra, founder and CEO, Makemytrip.com.
Cleartrip too hopes 20% of its revenue to come from hotel bookings instead of the present 7%. It also hopes to expand into the rail, bus and car rental space in future. ?While it is a logical step to diversify, it is much more required at this point of time considering there has been some amount of slowdown in the industry,k said Noel Swain, VP, marketing, Cleartrip.