An Enthusiastic Few Dominate Indian Online Travel Activity

June 30, 2011

A minority of Indian online travelers account for the majority of activity in the Indian online travel category, according to PhoCusWright's Indian Online Travel Traffic Report. The 20% most active of all unique visitors to the travel category – defined as "heavy online travelers" – account for the lion's share of both travel category visits and time spent on travel websites.

Heavy online travelers accounted for nearly 60% of visits to the Indian online travel category in December 2010 and more than 75% of time spent. This active group of Indian online travel shoppers is an attractive target for travel companies aiming to turn lookers into bookers.

"Heavy online travelers are likely to be further along in the trip planning process," said Douglas Quinby, senior director, research. "These are travelers who are actively shopping for products and purchasing travel, making them a coveted subsegment."

Only a handful of Indian travel websites have succeeded in attracting a significant share of India's heavy online traveler population. Rail websites have the highest penetration of heavy online travelers, followed by the leading Indian OTAs: MakeMyTrip, Yatra and Cleartrip. This shortlist of successful suitors attracts a significantly larger share of India's most active online travelers compared to both global OTA brands and airlines.

PhoCusWright's Indian Online Travel Traffic Report analyzes traffic volume, growth, cross-visitation and source/loss patterns across key travel subcategories, including online travel agencies, rail, airlines, hotels and more. The report examines the dynamics between supplier and intermediary channels as well as the dominance of local versus global travel companies for individual travel segments. The online travel traffic patterns highlighted in this report illuminate sector-specific dynamics and track the emergence of social media and metasearch within the Indian travel market.

Key topics include:

• Traffic to key travel website categories for the 15-month period from 4Q09 – 4Q10 including
• online travel agencies (OTAs)
• airlines
• rail and ground transportation
• hotels
• metasearch
• traveler reviews
• Travel website rankings within each travel category, including traffic and unique visitor growth
• Segment-specific comparison of traffic to supplier websites versus OTAs
• In-depth analysis of key online players, including cross-visitation, source and loss traffic
• Online traveler segmentation based on online activity, and insight into which travel websites are attracting the most likely bookers

As more of India's population accesses the Internet, the share of Indians capable of shopping for and booking travel online will continue to grow. PhoCusWright's India Online Travel Traffic Report illuminates the unique growth dynamics impacting the Indian online travel market. This Global and Asia Pacific Edition publication is available in the PhoCusWright Store for US$695.

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