Travel industry: New business model clicks

B D Narayankar

FOR EXAMPLE, online travel portal Cleartrip.com, in partnership with the Indian Railways and Catering and Tourism Corporation, has launched online train bookings. The tie-up with IRCTC has brought cheers to Cleartrip which had experienced a 10 per cent decrease in travel bookings in August-September compared to the first quarter of this year. The 10-per cent decrease in travel bookings was mainly because of withdrawal of certain flights. Also, a few customers, who were regular business class travellers had shifted to economy class travelling.

Cleartrip.com is now recording more than 22,000 railway ticket bookings per day and has also been receiving new traffic. "We have recorded a 15 per cent increase in air and hotel bookings also in the last one month," said Noel Swain, vice-president (Marketing), Cleartrip.com.

Giving the break-up of rail bookings, Cleartrip Rail Product Head Ashish Dhruva said the company had witnessed 17 per cent bookings from East India, while 55 per cent came from Kolkata. “As much as 77 per cent of the bookings from the East are for premium class with an approximate ticket value of Rs 1,650,” he divulged.
“The government-owned Indian Railways boasts one of the largest and most-trafficked railroad networks in the world, with over 18,000 trains operating daily across over 60,000 kilometres of railroad tracks and over 6,800 railway stations. The sheer size and scale of Indian Railways made offering online railway bookings a high priority for Cleartrip,” he added.

By 2009-10, Cleartrip expects domestic travel bookings to account for almost 60 per cent of its overall revenues, railway booking for about 20 per cent; the remaining will be accounted for by hotel bookings. Apart from travel bookings, Cleartrip is contemplating introduction of new services like insurance protection for international travellers, Dhruva said. At present, it offers Tata AIG and General Insurance cover to domestic travellers.

On the other hand, Travelport, a Mumbai-based travel house, has decided to make holidaying an over-the-counter (OTC) experience. At these counters, a customer can browse through information on touch-screen kiosks and plan his travel. He can make air and railway ticket bookings, choose his hotel and the date of travel either for business or pleasure both in India and abroad, informed Adil Bajirao, senior vice-president, leisure outbound division, Travelport.

Travelport will launch about 150-200 such travel solution shops across the country and has decided to tie up with several malls, multiplexes and retail chains for the purpose. The first OTC counter has been launched at the InOrbit mall in the western suburb of Malad in Mumbai.

The company also plans to open unmanned kiosks like travel ATMs, which will function 24x7 and cater to the emergency needs of travellers who may need to change their plans even in the middle of the night.