Online usage grows in India
Contributors are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the contributor directly
A study of the online travel industry in India found that the number of visitors to travel sites increased 32% in the past year to 18.5 million visitors as more Indians turned to the web for their travel needs. “The online travel category continues to show strong growth in India,” said Kedar Gavane, comScore Director for India. “The convenience of booking trips and locating travel information online continues to appeal to many users, especially among India’s young Internet population. As the online travel industry matures it will be important for brands to provide increasing functionality, ease of use and security to its users to effectively compete in this growing market.”In April this year, 18.5 million online users aged 15 or older visited a travel site from a home or work location, up 32% from the previous year. Each of the top 10 properties in the category experienced strong growth in the past year. Indian Railways led as the most-visited travel destination with 8.4 million visitors, an increase of 8% from the previous year. Online Travel Agent sites (OTAs) secured the remainder of the four top spots in the category. MakeMyTrip reached nearly 3.9 million visitors (up 63%) followed by Yatra Online with 3.5 million visitors (up 82%) and ClearTrip.com with more than 2.1 million visitors (up 80%). U.S.-based Expedia Inc. secured the fifth position with 1.8 million visitors (up 12%).Of the 7.1 million people visiting the top three OTAs, MakeMyTrip, Yatra Online and ClearTrip.com, in April, more than 2 million users (29%) visited two or more of the three sites in April 2011. The remaining 71% of visitors checked in at only one of the three sites during the month demonstrating relatively strong brand loyalty among the top players.
Comments are closed.