Business
HOTEL Business Review
T
he penetration of Internet in our lives and lifestyles has revolutionised the travel and hospitality industry across the globe. As a result of the influence of Internet, the conventional marketing strategies for hospitality sector are undergoing a change. One can say that Internet has helped and is helping the potential guests to better research on the hotel/s they are going to stay, and has afforded greater ease in booking. It is no wonder that Internet travel booking revenue has escalated by more than 73 percent during the last five years. Across the globe, online channels, including online travel agencies (OTAs) and hotel websites continue to experience significant growth in hotel bookings. Naturally, this trend is getting evident in India too. Overall, there has been a significant growth in the online travel bookings in India. According to Dhruv Shringi, the Co-founder and CEO of Yatra Online, the OTA channel in India has gone from being niche to mainstream,
specially in the top 8-10 cities. He believes there is a still a long way to go in terms of the overall online versus offline share, but OTAs have emerged as a viable option in a short span. According to Sharat Dall, the President at Yatra Online Pvt. Ltd., the customers are shifting their focus from offline to online transactions as far as hotel bookings are concerned. Summing up the situation of the online travel bookings in India, Mike Kistner, the Chief Executive Officer
of RezNext and former Chairman and CEO of Pegasus Solutions Inc. said, “Trends indicate that online hotel room bookings are taking off in a big way.” And this trend is not concentrated to high-end five-star hotels of India only. “Approximately 50 percent of all online hotel bookings in India are for three-star hotels,” informed Kistner.
The Changing Focus Online travel sites like MakeMyTrip. com, goibibo.com and Yatra.com are
Sept-Oct ’13
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