TRAVEL is proving to be the jewel in India’s e-commerce crown with travel related sales on the web accounting for over 70 per cent of all e-commerce transactions.
The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) estimates the average number of online travel transactions has increased nearly fourfold, from 207,000 a month in 2003-04 to 795,000 in 2005-06. With internet usage growing at 50 per cent per year, and e-commerce projected to double by 2007, the opportunities are huge, not just for distributors who locally based, but anyone with a product marketable online.
Capitalising on those opportunities will be EyeforTravel, which has just published the agenda for its inaugural Travel Distribution India event, to take place at the Hyatt Regency in New Delhi on October 25 and 26. Following the success of its global Travel Distribution Summit series, EyeforTravel’s new event will enable travel executives eager to claim there share of the burgeoning Indian online travel market to debate strategy and form profitable partnerships.
Already, the innovators and trail-blazers are making travel pay. But will they be able to maintain their early-entry leadership positions? Or will the next wave of competition be able to profit even more handsomely by learning from the experiences – and mistakes – of those who went first?
“For companies that are serious about selling travel in India, Travel Distribution India 2006 is a guaranteed short cut to creating the partnerships and strategies needed to succeed,” says a spokesperson for the event.
As this is the first event of its kind in India, it will feature up-to-the-minute business intelligence that simply isn’t available anywhere else. Through a series of exclusive conference sessions, delegates will be able to examine such successful online models as MakeMyTrip, TravelGuru and ClearTrip, understand the massive impact the growth in low cost air travel is having on travel e-commerce in India and whether this growth continue or is the market already becoming saturated, as well as discover how hotels and resorts are beginning to jump on the e-commerce bandwagon and how they plan to sell and distribution more of their inventory on the Web. The conference will also assess the new distribution technologies poised to transform the current travel distribution landscape in India.
Among those scheduled to speak at the upcoming event are Dhruv Shringi, founder and executive director, Yatra, Deep Kalra, founder and CEO of MakeMyTrip.com, Viiveck Verma, MD, Abacus India, Cleartrip’s Stuart Crighton, Travelguru CEO Ahwin Damera, CEO, Raj Halve of GoAir, Manoj Gursahani, president, Travelmartindia, SpiceJet’s Sanjay Kumar, Galileo India’s
Raja Natesan, Himansu Singh of Taj Hotels and Resorts and Peter Kerkar, group CEO, Cox & Kings.