International OTAs Join The Fray
The already crowded Indian online travel industry is going to get even more crowded, and this time its the turn of the International online travel agents to set up shop in what is arguably the world’s most promising economy. Worldwide, the total spending on travel is estimated at $1 trillion with 25% of the transactions conducted through the Internet, while in India, online travel is estimated to reach $1.7 billion by the end of 2007-2008.
Travelocity.co.in, which had started hotel bookings in India in March, will start selling airline tickets on the Internet by December, beating Expedia.com, which is planning to start its Indian operations by early next year.
Most of the online travel agents seem to be competing on price and deals, but given the number of players, a shakeout should be just around the corner. It would be interesting to see how the various payers decide to differentiate themselves going forward. Some possibilities:
- More emphasis on niche social networking based marketing (think igougo from Travelocity).
- Offline avenues to interact, such as kiosks, etc. (update)
- Segmentation and specialisation for groups of travelers
- Extention to other forms of travel such as road and rail