Future Money to aid Cleartrip travel products

Online travel agency, Cleartrip, has joined hands with the Kishore Biyani promoted Future Money, a non-banking finance company, to provide finance on an equated monthly instalment (EMIs) basis to people wanting to buy its travel products.

The facility will be available at four of Future Group's Big Bazaar outlets in Mumbai. Cleartrip will soon extend this tie-up to other Big Bazaar outlets in the city as well as other metros. According to the portal, this facility can be used to pay for all Cleartrip's offerings, such as air tickets, hotel bookings and tour packages.

"With this move, we plan to make travel products affordable to the masses. People who otherwise could not think of going on a holiday, can now do so. The idea is to bring down a Rs 8,000 holiday to Rs 200 a month for travellers," said Sandeep Murthy, CEO, Cleartrip.

Representatives of Cleartrip are already present at four Big Bazaar outlets in Mumbai, following a tie-up with the Future Group in July. They will now be assisted by Future Money sales executives.

These executives will guide the customers with the paperwork for the EMIs. Finance will be provided to the customers as soon as the required verifications are complete. The tickets will be handed over to the customers immediately.

According to Murthy, the facility will be available for a transaction above Rs 6,000. The upper limit would exceed the Rs 50,000 mark. The credit risk will be borne entirely by Future Money. However, the revenue sharing agreement between the two companies has not been revealed.

The travel portal is also considering liasing with Pantaloons, the other retail arm of the Future Group.

Murthy said, "By joining hands with the Future Group, we have access to its country-wide network of 57 Big Bazaar outlets, seven malls and 31 Pantaloon Stores. This improves our visibility and makes much more business sense than investing in real estate and setting up offices all around the country."

The travel industry in India is pegged at $20 billion, while online travel is a $2 billion industry. Travel portals, which currently have a seven per cent share of the total travel bookings market, are expected to raise it to 28 per cent in a year, according to Murthy.