As many as 7.7 million visitors visited the Indian Railways website in April, 46% more than a year ago, says a report by comScore, a marketing research firm. The firm has prepared a ranking of travel websites based on the number of visitors.
MakeMyTrip was ranked second with 2.4 million visitors (up 39%); Yatra online came next with with 1.9 million visitors (up 60%). Several Indian websites saw triple-digit growth including Travelocity (up 134% to 812,000 visitors), IndiaRailInfo.com(up 340% to 647,000 visitors) and eRail.in(up 160% to 464,000 visitors), the report adds.
Top rail sites seemed to engage viewers. On the website of Indian Railways, visitors averaged 33 minutes, consumed 50 pages and visited nearly 4 times during the month. IndiaRailInfo.com saw 34 minutes, 66 pages and 2 visits followed by eRail.in with 28 minutes, 38 pages and nearly 4 visits.
Around 14 million people, aged 15 and above, visited travel sites in India from home or work in April. This is 37% of the total online population, and a jump of 50% over last year.
Internet users averaged 38.4 minutes per visitor on travel sites during April and consumed 58 pages of content, while visiting the category an average of 4 times throughout the month. India ranked second among all countries, behind only the UK, in terms of the average time spent per visitor in the category.
? Travel sites now attract more than one-third of India’s total Internet population, as more consumers are turning to the Web to fulfill their travel planning and booking needs,? says Will Hodgman, executive vice-president, Asia-Pacific region, comScore.
? In the current economic climate, consumers are being cost-conscious when making travel arrangements. With half of all visitors to the category frequenting two or more travel sites during the month, it’s clear that consumers are taking the time to diligently compare prices prior to completing their transactions.
In this competitive environment, online travel agents and suppliers face the challenge of building and maintaining consumer loyalty, Indians are clearly very careful and deliberate online shoppers when it comes to planning their travel,? added Hodgman.
? While this is an admirable trait among consumers, it demonstrates the importance of travel sites offering a very user-friendly service that is competitive on price. This will be the way to engender long term loyalty among this new wave of online travel bookers in the Indian market,? he concluded.
