Armed with a marketing budget of Rs 25 crore, leading US-based online travel company Expedia is now planning to make inroads into India’s online travel market.
The company plans to heavily invest in search-engine marketing and search-engine optimisation that would allow it to draw search traffic to its portal. The site, www.expedia.co.in, launched in 2008 in India, is now positioning itself as a site that would allow users to customise packages.
“We will focus primarily on online advertising for promoting the brand. By February 12 this year, we will launch our campaigns on TV and outdoor media,” Dan Lynn, managing director and vice-president of the Asia Pacific and Japan region of Expedia said. Advertising agency Lowe Lintas has been assigned the creative duties for all the online and offline activities of the travel company.”
According to industry estimates, the market for online travel bookings in India has grown to $6 billion (Rs 27,198 crore) in 2010, from a mere $295 million (Rs 1,337 crore) in 2005. Expedia’s internal research indicates that about 40 per cent of Indian travellers were willing to experiment when it comes to booking airlines and hotels online. “We are eyeing a share in the same segment of travellers. We expect the Indian visitor count to increase by about 150 per cent and Indian transactions to rise by 100 per cent by the end of 2011,” said Lynn.
Realising that local players like Makemytrip, Yatra and Cleartrip have a competitive advantage, Lynn said: “Expedia has also launched a ‘Global Hotel Sale’ that provides up to 50 per cent discounts on 2,500 hotels that we partner with in India and over 130,000 international hotels for global travellers.”
The company offers discounts on destinations, including Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Hong Kong, London, Paris, Rome, Florence, Tokyo and Frankfurt, as well as in key domestic locations like New Delhi, Goa, Bangalore, Jaipur and Udaipur.
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Expedia is also offering travellers up to 30-50 per cent discount on hotel reservations along with a Last-Minute deal section, which provides travellers with up to 50 per cent discount or even free accommodation at hotels.
The Expedia-owned website, TripAdvisor, has already made its presence felt in the Indian online travel space within two years of its launch. It is the fourth largest travel website in India in terms of monthly visitor figures.