International online hotel booking portal Hotels.com today said it is tripling its marketing spends in India, estimated to be about Rs 25 crore, this year for launching a slew of promotional initiatives.
"We have increased the marketing spends by almost three times this year compared to earlier," Hotels.com Asia-Pacific Marketing Director Abhiram Chowdhry told PTI without disclosing figures.
While he did not specify the exact amount marketing spend in India, Chowdhry said it would be in line with what Hotel.com's parent Expedia.Com plans.
Recently, Expedia.Com had announced that it will spend Rs 25 crore in India this year on marketing and promotion to woo Indian travellers. As a part of new marketing initiatives, Expedia has launched a new campaign -- Big Daddy of Online travel -- in the country.
"We are going to be very competitive (in marketing spends) like Expedia," Chowdhry said.
The company will soon launch multi-media advertising and promotional campaigns to promote its brand in India, with a focus on both conventional media and digital platforms, including social networking sites like Facebook.
"We have a Facebook page which can also be used by users for making hotel bookings. Similarly we are about to launch mobile applications for iPhones and android phones to enable users to make bookings directly from handheld devices," he added.
Commenting on the potential of the Indian market, Chowdhry said it is among one of the fastest growing markets for the company in the Asia-Pacific region.
"In the next three to five years, India and China will be the biggest markets for Hotels.Com in the Asia-Pacific. India is an investment market for us right now and all the earnings are currently being reinvested in the business here," he said.
Out of the total 1,30,000 hotels in the company's global portfolio, in the Asia-Pacific region the company has tie-ups with around 13,000 hotels and in India, the company has tie-ups with 2,400 hotels across categories.
Chowdhry said Hotels.com accounts for about one-third of Expedia's global sales.
For the year ended December 31, 2010, Expedia Inc's total revenues stood at $3.3 billion.