Online travel firms up the ante on B'lore

Online travel services firms like MakeMyTrip.com, FlightRaja.com (now Via) and Le Passage To India are strengthening their presence in the country's IT hub, Bangalore, also considered one of the biggest markets for international travel.

Travel and Tourism research firm PhoCusWright pegs the online travel market in India at $1.3 bn in 2007, likely to grow to $2 bn by 2008. While a large proportion of online travel buyers in Bangalore are corporate travellers, the presence of a young population with high disposable incomes and desire to explore new locations, is fuelling the growth of the leisure segment as well.

According to MakeMyTrip founder and CEO Deep Kalra, Bangalore accounts for nearly one-fifth of his company's India turnover of Rs 225 crore. "Ninety per cent of our overall revenues comes from online air ticket sales, to which Bangalore contributes about 20 per cent," he said.

The company formally launched its operations in the city recently, by setting up a regional office here and plans to recruit IT professionals to strengthen its technology back-end. They also intend to focus on buying hotel stays and holidays, along with air tickets. "We plan to grow our outbound sales in Karnataka from the present 3 per cent to around 7 per cent in the present fiscal," Kalra said.

Bangalore-based ticketing solutions provider FightRaja receives business worth Rs 40-60 lakh per day from the city. According to FlightRaja CEO Vinay Gupta the online travel market in Bangalore is likely to grow 20 per cent annually, over the next five years.

"There are around 6 lakh working professionals in the city. On an average, they book about 4-5 trips a year and are likely to spend around Rs 3,500 per trip," he said.

Most of these bookings take place online. FlightRaja recently received a $5-million funding from venture capital firm NEA IndoUS Ventures. It now plans to increase the headcount in Bangalore and other centres, invest in in-house training of personnel and beef up hosting and tech-support facilities.

New Delhi-based Le Passage to India Tours and Travels, which specialises in package tours, plans to set up 'holiday shops' in Bangalore to help customers plan their trips abroad.

Chairman Emeritus Le Passage to India Ghulam Naqshband said, "Bangalore is our biggest market for outbound sales. Popular destinations include Europe, United States of America, South Africa and Southeast Asia."