The online travel audience in India is rising, according to comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world. It found that the number of visitors to travel sites increased 32 per cent in the past year to 18.5 million visitors as more Indians are turning to the web for their travel needs.
“The online travel category continues to show strong growth in India,” Kedar Gavane, comScore Director for India said on Friday. “The convenience of booking trips and locating travel information online continues to appeal to many users, especially among India’s young Internet population. As the online travel industry matures it will be important for brands to provide increasing functionality, ease of use and security to its users to effectively compete in this growing market.”
In April 2011, 18.5 million online users age 15 or older visited a travel site from a home or work location, an increase of 32 per cent from the previous year. Each of the top 10 properties in the category experienced strong growth in the past year. Indian Railways led as the most-visited travel destination with 8.4 million visitors, an increase of 8 per cent from the previous year.
Online travel Agent sites (OTAs) secured the remainder of the four top spots in the category. MakeMyTrip reached nearly 3.9 million visitors (up 63 per cent) followed by Yatra Online with 3.5 million visitors (up 82 per cent) and ClearTrip.com with more than 2.1 million visitors (up 80 per cent). US-based Expedia Inc secured the #5 position with 1.8 million visitors (up 12 per cent).
TravelAdNetwork, Mustseeindia.com, Indiarailinfo.com, Redbus.in, and HolidayIQ.com complete the Top 10.
Of the 7.1 million people visiting the top three OTAs, MakeMyTrip, Yatra Online and ClearTrip.com, in April, more than 2 million users (29 per cent) visited two or more of the three sites in April 2011. The remaining 71 per cent of visitors checked in at only one of the three sites during the month demonstrating relatively strong brand loyalty among the top players.
These findings and others will be presented via a live webinar, ‘The State of the Internet India’, on June 7.
