Critical role of

CRM for the

success of
Online Travel
Portals
Group 7
KARAN Gupta 28
KESHAV Sharma 29
KHUSHAL Gupta 30
MANISH Sonkar 31

Industry Overview

About online travel industry

A higher number of travellers now plan their itineraries online (including their
tickets, stay bookings, trave insurance and other related services).
This has led to an increase in the number of offerings made by the e-Travel
portals in India.
These portals are moving from being a standalone entity towards a "one stop
shop for all the travel needs of a traveller
Indias online travel and tourism sector is seeing massive growth in recent times
According to data revealed by the Tourism Ministry of India.
The countrys travel and tourism market is poised to grow at a rate of 7.5
percent in 2015
The travel sector would contribute upto Rs 8.22 trillion to Indias GDP this year.
The online travel sector comprising more than 61 percent of the total ecommerce industry in India, is estimated to be in the range of $ 11-16 billion.
OTAs provide increased flexibility, lower pricing and more options in terms of
destinations, it is being increasingly adopted by new-age Indian traveller

Offerings
Air Travel

Hotel and Packages

Other Segments

Domestic : Within India Hotels : Domestic and Intl

Rail
International : From India
Packages :
Bus
Inbound : Overseas to Domestic and Intl
Car
India
Conferences and EventsAncillary Services/Products

System

Interacti
on
Website UI
Travel
Executives
Call Centers

OTA

Search Engine
Booking Facility
CRM

Offerin
g

Interfa
ce
Online travel
portal

Airline tickets
Hotel reservations
Holiday packages
Railways tickets
Bus tickets
Car rentals
Customer care
support

Market Share
e-Travel constitutes

61%

of total
ecommerce

e
10%
Oth
rs

18%
48%

24%
Indian OTA Market
-49,730Crore

Transaction Traffic
Hotel

40%
60%

Online
Offline

Holiday

Air ticket
10%

5%

Onlin
e

Online
Offline
95%

90%

Major Industry
Players

MAKE MY TRIP

YATRA

Established: 2000
Largest market share in Indian
OTA industry
First Indian OTA to be traded on
NASDAQ
Global presence: US, Canada,
UAE
Covers 450+ cities in India
through travel agent partners
Investors: SAIF, Helion, Sierra

Established: 2006
Partnered with Reliance World for
ticket distribution
Started Holiday Lounges in 50
major cities in India
Global presence: US, UK
Investors: Reliance, TV18, Norwest,
Intel Capital

CLEARTRIP

TRAVELOCITY

Established- 2006
Partnered with Tripadvisor.com and
Lonely Planet
Global presence: Middle East (UAE,
Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait)
Investors: KPCB, Sherpalo
ventures, DAG Ventures, DFJ

Established- 1996 (US); 2007 (India)

Acquired Travelguru, India based
OTA with focus on hotel bookings, in
2009
Global acquisitions: site59.com,
lastminute.com
Global presence: US, Canada,
Germany France, Scandinavian
countries, UK and Mexico

Challenges

Nonreliability
of offline
partners

Low
operatin
g
margins

Challenge
s faced by
online
Travel
Industry

Payment
processin
g issues

Limited
reach in
tier-II and
tier-III
cities

 Major companies are acquiring smaller companies to expand their services

Consolidatio Makemytrip acquired Ticketvala.com, Travelocity acquired Travelguru and Yatra acquired
n amongst
Ticket services International
players

Recent
Trends

Focus on
hotels and
tours

One-stop
solution
mantra

For the industry leader Make My Trip, while gross bookings for Air-travel and tours grew by
45% net revenue grew by 49% and 84%, respectively

Most OTAs have partnered with IRCTC for rail bookings to generate traffic
OTAs are also partnering with bus ticketing websites and car rental companies to become
one-stop solution for travel needs

Yatra has started 50 lounges across India while Make my trip has an agent network across
450+ cities
Merging online Yatra has also partnered with Reliance World (120 centers across India) where customers can
and offline
book tickets and hotels

Global
expansion of
players

OTAs are expanding globally in countries with high NRI population

Research Design

Research Design
Module-1: Desk Research
Industry Overview
Study from online reports
OTAs websites study with focus on
CRM to support primary research

Module 2: Primary Research

Online surveys filled by people who
have travelled through online
travel portals, comparative study
of some of the major OTAs and
final analysis

e-Travel and Consumer

CONSUMER Journey

User-friendly web
interface with ease
of seamless
booking facility,
price comparison
features, incentives
for subscribing, etc.
Information about
deals, products and
services, travel
assistance

83% of the e-Travel

companies use welcome
email programs for an onboarding customer.
Relationship marketing
over emails, newsletters,
SMS/mobile is the primary
means for Customer
Acquisition.

Post-purchase messages,
gift reminders, miss you
mails,
birthday/anniversary
emails, promotions and
discounts, personalized
deals, loyalty programs,
feedback surveys, etc. for
customer retention.

Major TOUCH POINTS for consumer

engagement

Use of email marketing for CRM

Marketers are using email marketing to reach to the consumer directly with personalized and
relevant offers.
This direct channel of communication is used to welcome new users, build customer relationships,
convert prospects to buyers and engage with the right audience through pre-purchase and postpurchase messages.

Consumer
BEHAVIOR

Consumer Motivation for Travel

76%,
Top 3

64%,

48%,

Top 3

Top 3

Factors affecting Purchase

Decision

82%,

55%,

45%,

Top 3

Top 3

Top 3

Primary Research and

Analysis

Primary Research Methodology

Factors affecting the selection criterion of an OTA were found out through
brainstorming and secondary research.
A structured questionnaire was prepared and a sample of customers were asked
to rate the factors obtained on a scale of 1 to 5.
where 1 least important
5 most important
The top 6 significant factors based on the rating obtained through customer
feedback were used to prepare another questionnaire to understand the
consumer perception about the services of major OTA players of IndiaMakeMyTrip, Yatra, Cleartrip and IRCTC
Data collected through the questionnaire(primary research) is analyzed from
customers perspective
Sampling Used- Convenient Sampling

Factor Analysis
Core
Features
Ease of
Cancellation
User friendly
interface
Customer care
assistance
Flexibility in
Payment
Lower price
Timely booking
Payment and

OTA
selection
factors

Brand
Features
Advertisement

Extended
Features
Email and SMS
alerts

Brand popularity
Online reviews
Peer referrals

Cab pick and drop

service
Deals and
discounts
Mobile App

Questionnaire for Factors affecting the selection

criterion of an OTA
Factors

Average Score
( Out of 5 )

Factors

Average Score
( Out of 5 )

Ease of Cancellation

3.85

Online reviews

4.05

Peer Referrals

4.25

Email & SMS

alerts

4.55

Cab pick and drop

3.5

Deals & Discounts

4.3

Loyalty programs

4.8

Mobile App

3.65

Past Customer
experience

4.9

Service
customization
level

4.6

Human friendly
interface

4.85

Customer care
assistance

4.4

Lower price

4.75

Timely booking

Personal &
Payment Info
Privacy

4.7

Flexibility in
payment

4.2

Visibility

4.1

Questionnaire to understand the consumer

perception about the services of major OTA players
Significant factors

Yatra

Cleartrip

IRCTC

MakeMyTri
p
Human friendly interface

4.5

4.85

4.3

4.2

Customer care assistance

4.4

4.1

4.2

3.5

Lower price

4.1

4.75

4.5

4.3

Personal & Payment Info

Privacy

4.5

4.6

4.2

4.7

Email & SMS alerts

4.55

4.4

4.2

Loyalty programs

4.65

4.8

4.45

2.8

Past Customer experience

4.9

4.75

4.35

4.5

Service customization level

4.6

4.05

3.75

3.4

Spider-web analysis for comparison among

major OTAs

Secondary Research For

OTAs

Makemytrip.com
CRM STRATEGY

Engagement
programs like postpurchase messages,
gift reminders, miss
you mails,
promotions and

Personalized deals
based on
behavioural
targeting, purchase
history and special
occasions are used
to reach the right
audience at the
right time

engaging with
consumers over
social media
platforms and are
using integrated
media campaigns to
Loyalty programs,
re-order reminders, do so (email,
SMS/Mobile, etc
feedback surveys
are used for
Customer Retention

yatra.com
Cluster Based Segmentation
Behavioural based
Profitability based

Acquire
custome
rs
profitabl
y
Earn
their
trust to
make
them
brand
advocat
es

Make
custome
rs spend
to their
potentia
l
Retain
long
term
profitabl
e
custome
rs

cleartrip.com
Multiple
currency
prices
Waytogo
Activity based
trip
EMI payment
option

Weakness

Strength
1. Simple Interface and

processes
2. Presence in the international
business scenario
3. Good customer support for
customers
4. Highly Customer oriented
5. Tieups with airlines,
corporates and hotel chains

1.Unable to attract customers

who are not internet savvy
2.Reluctance in customers to
avail bookings through online
payments
3.Cases of Unsatisfactory
customer service in terms of
addressing issues

SWOT

Threat

Opportunity

1. Possible lack of co-ordination

with tourism entities
2.Present competitors having
substantial market share
3. Newly emerging online
booking portals with better
offerings

1.Customers currently using

traditional methods of bookings
2.Offer better travel packages in
line with customer expectation
3.Untapped sections of
international tourism market

IRCTC
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Food-on-Track
Mobile App
IRCTC is the only platform in India
that allows train tickets to be
bought online. Online booking in
India for IRCTC took a huge leap
from 2010 onwards. However, with
the new government rule in 2014
also came a faster IRCTC website
(IRCTC data).

Pilgrim special
tourist train
IRCTC prepaid card
Shop on Amazon
Strong agent base
Immediate
response

Some more insights

Some insights from internship

MMT is working on UI testing to improve user experience.
They call actual users to their labs and observe how they use the
MMT UI on website as well as mobile applications.
MMT is also working on telephonic surveys to understand
reasons why certain customers stick to MMT and why
others do not.
Yatra is also following the similar trend like MMT to conduct
telephonic surveys with the customers to improve retention
Yatra is not working on UI testing right now, rather they are
planning to test their call centre workflow to understand
customer experience.

MMT working on high level

customization
Providing features like personalization and customization of
packages.
MMT has a feature of Make your own package in which the
user can customize everything like flights, duration of stay,
destinations to be covered day-wise, activities to be done,
hotels, transfer facilities, meals, etc.
But other OTAs (Yatra and IRCTC)do not give such level of
customization rather they just give multiple types of packages
to choose from.
Cleartrip does not even gives you package. They only have
combos to book flights and hotels together.