Online Travel Industry on a Boom in India

Indians have been using internet a lot with 13 percent of increase from last year and to support this online travel industry has supported to the most extent. The online travel visit is growing strongly with booking convenience provided by travel agents like MakeMyTrip, ClearTrip, Yatra etc. It has been more popular among the young internet population as the online travel industry has shown signs of maturity with easy to use functionalities and extra security to users to compete in this ecommerce revolution.

The year 2011 has seen an unexpected increase of 32 percent in internet visitors aging 15 or

older visiting online travel sites. This is dominated by Indian Railways which has got 8.4 million visitors in the year 2010-2011 with an increase of 8 percent. This is followed by MakeMyTrip, Yatra and ClearTrip.

Online tourism in India is quietly dominated by private players who have an upper hand in Indian market with 9.6 million visitors. These three top players MakemyTrip, Yatra & ClearTrip has seen extra ordinary rise in online visits in 2010-2011.

According to travel market research reports MakeMyTrip had 3.9 million visitors (up by 63 percent) which is closely followed by YatraOnline which had good jump with 3.5 million visitors (increase of 82 percent as compare to 2010) and ClearTrip with more than 2.1 million visitors (with an increase of 80 percent).

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Tourism Sector In India on a Boil

Even there has been slow
growth at the start of millennium, Indian tourism industry growth has been on boil and
performed quite well. Tourism sector in India contribute 4.4% of GDP (2011) which
is the third largest foreign exchange earner. This growth in contribution
slowed down in 2008-2009 which again picked up in 2010.

Despite the problem with infrastructure that supports tourism sector in India, growth has been incredible. According to latest release tourism market research report India and China will drive the tourism industry at fact pace in coming years. Domestic tourism has also shown great potential and has been growing at good pace.

In comparison to inflow of tourists in India there is major shortfall of rooms. As per data sourced from Indian tourism ministry total demand is for 295,000 rooms with supply of only 113,540 rooms. Still after approval of 90,000 rooms there is shortfall of supply which is main hindrance for Indian hospitality industry.

The current stats gathered from online market
research done by Visha Consultants shows an imbalance in demand and
supply of available hotels in India. The ratio is eye opening for Indian hospitality industry to strive. The demand for hotel rooms is more than double what India currently has which can have impact on Indian tourism industry. Recent marketing research stats suggest that major metro cities in India will add some 35,000 rooms by 2011.