There is no ignoring the new bug that has bitten the whole world (age no bar) – the smartphone. The smartphone has moved everyone off their desktops and laptops, and onto their cell phones, owing to the sheer convenience of the device being able to provide almost every day-to-day service that the former devices can. From mobile-light sites to cloud computing, the phone has become the Pandora’s box to anything that needs to be done online and on the move. But being the insatiable species that we are, we wanted (and got) more. The world has moved onto the even more user-friendly interface of mobile apps, and the tech savvy travel industry refused to lag behind.
“The Indian online travel market is one of the fastest growing in the world. The stronghold of India IT development can be seen as a major reason for this extraordinary boost in the past decade. The travel vertical is a prime example, one which Abacus underpins with its technology, supporting the new digital new business models. We are helping conventional travel businesses build out into the digital world, attracting new customers and transacting in new ways, as well as encouraging online travel agents to scale,” said Jeet Sawhney, MD, Abacus India.
Rajesh Magow, Co-Founder and CEO-India, MakeMyTrip commented that, technology has not only changed the way travel is distributed, it has also affected the way travellers experience it. “Today, Indian customers are fairly confident of purchasing travel-products online from their preferred portals, or through mobiles. They have also become much more comfortable with accessing travel services and making a purchase decision online. These trends have and will continue to accelerate the growth of the industry,” he opined.
The ‘app’roach to mobile travel
The advent of mobile technology has kept the travel space on their toes, vying for the Indian travellers’ attention by catering to their every need via the smartphone. A study from PhoCusWright research suggests that mobile will be the fastest-growing travel distribution channel in India between 2012 and 2015. “Mobile travel gross bookings will surge an astounding 1,026 per cent between 2012 and 2015 – reaching US$1.2 billion,” the study stated and suggested that new technology and technology enhancements must be designed with mobile capability in mind.
Sawhney opined that Abacus connects travellers to the agents on any web-enabled device and with 39 per cent of Indian business travellers now making travel arrangements including bookings via smartphones. “This is proof enough that the platform provides a huge market,” he added.
According to Sandeep Dwivedi, Chief Commercial Officer, InterGlobe Technology, the world is evolving and technology is becoming an enabler for all. “Mobile technology is a key priority as more people are moving to mobile devices to access online content. The travel sector in India is very quickly adapting to new technology now available to them. With the smartphones available more and more travel search and planning is happening by travellers themselves directly. Various players of the travel industry are moving towards embracing technology as it will help them reach a wider set of customers. Besides, they are able to showcase their products and services more effectively using various tools that are available,” he explained.
Cleartrip has recently provided customers with the option of cancelling bookings via the mobile app. Subramanya Sharma, Head of Products, Cleartrip shared their app contributes to 65 per cent of mobile traffic and has served as a great tool for engagement and notifications. “The increase in mobile phone usage has led to innovations in the travel space, such as the advent of multi-screens on mobiles. Access and personalisation are provided through mobiles, and the mobile app becomes a marriage of convenience and access,” he opined.
MakeMyTrip launched its first mobile app in 2011 and in June 2012 became the first Indian OTA to offer a travel-booking app for iPhone users. These apps allow customers to book flights, hotels and bus on the move, cancel their bookings, track the status of their refunds, send e-tickets and vouchers, check flight status and also look for alternate arrangements in case of last minute delays. Today, mobile accounts for more than 19 per cent of the OTA’s monthly unique visitors and 15 per cent of online transactions. In domestic flights, mobile bookings account for 15 per cent of total online transactions, while standalone hotel bookings from mobile represent 27 per cent of total online domestic hotel transactions for MakeMyTrip.
“The take-off of mobile internet and applications has revolutionised the OTA segment. Access channels have evolved with the growing dependency on smartphones, and today more Big Data has also emerged as an important enabler for travel companies to engage better with customers and deliver service efficiently and intelligently. It provides us a great opportunity to positively impact both the business-end and the experience at the customer-end through better decision-making, greater product and service innovation and stronger customer relationships that will be delivered by new approaches to customer management, revenue management and internal operations,” said Magow.
Kunal Mittal, CEO and Founder, 90bids.com, which is currently readying it’s own mobile app, believes that mobile internet has created the biggest revolution in the sector of e-commerce. “Initially there were days when a person who had to travel had to go to the counter to purchase hotel accommodation, flight tickets etc. It required time and was expensive as well. Today, all these offerings are available at the customer’s fingertips. This has also led to competitive pricing,” he said.
Aman Travels is also set to launch a mobile app for it’s customers. “Technology has done wonders for the travel business. It has opened new frontiers and changed the distribution system. One has to incorporate it or else be wiped out of the business,” opined Deepak Narula, Managing Director, Aman Travels.
Saurabh Srivastava, VP Marketing and Product Strategy, ixigo.com, stated that mobile is the next big thing in online travel. With newer apps being introduced by various players and the ease of making bookings on the phone- technology is the main dominant factor in taking the online travel industry to its next phase of growth.
“The potential of mobile platforms to facilitate travel is compelling. The scope is immense,” Srivastava opined.
What’s on offer
Designing and launching mobile apps to book travel and accommodation was the start of this phenomenon. The industry then moved on to provide trip planning, cancellations, hotel reviews, guidance and many more functionalities. And all of this is just the tip of the iceberg.
“The world is moving towards all mobile at a very fast pace. The age of wearable technology is just starting and in the near future we will start seeing very practical uses of this. In 10 years from now, people will be using wearable technology (equivalent of Google Glasses, Smartwatches) for having all information at one’s fingertips, conduct online transactions and also controlling equipment (cars, stereo systems, etc.). Yesterday’s science fiction is today’s reality and today’s science fiction will be tomorrow’s reality,” opined Magow.
Mittal believed that idea generation and creativity have no boundaries, while execution of such ideas and creativity leads to Innovation. He predicts much more to happen in the online space. Srivastava opined that social media will have a huge role to play in future and is already a big boon to make data analytics even more powerful. Mobile is a big focus area for ixigo.com and the company expects its next 100 million users to come through the mobile platform.
“The future ‘value-pull’ for agencies will be in successfully integrating mobile and website versions of the requisite travel solutions they use. For travel agents, therefore, mobile formats and app integration are likely to be key sales conversion factors where there is an opportunity to target these customers. Timing and content is everything. The value comes from delivering the right functionality at the right time to the right type of traveller. Most travel solutions today should offer online check in as standard, and the ability to provide that is important to those agencies that do not yet have it. Equally important is the ability to up-sell and gain ancillary sales. Looking further ahead, the future value will come from gaining the necessary customer intelligence and travel content to help sell better as well as providing the necessary solutions to help travellers to help themselves,” said Dwivedi.
Digital v/s conventional marketing
India is a young market with an old soul. So while most industries have begun to move towards online and digital marketing, with the travel industry being at the forefront of this trend, just as mom-and-pop shops have survived the advent of OTAs, the debate over digital marketing v/s conventional marketing continues. This has resulted in the industry turning it’s focus to digital marketing, while never taking it’s eye off conventional marketing strategies.
Magow stated that, the Indian travel sector has adopted innovative trends, technologies and given a whole new dimension to this industry over the years. Digital marketing contributes immensely to this growth and is a rapidly growing force in the current marketing playing field.
“The RoI on digital promotions is easier to track and analyse. Offline campaigns are more long-lead and we primarily use them for brand-building purpose. As a company one of our priorities is to make judicious use of offline channels (TV, radio, print) to create visibility for the brand and promote specific lines of business such as international and domestic holidays,” he shared.
Srivastava commented that, while the expansion of Indian media has given a wider range of choice to brands, it has also made marketing more measurable and complex. Today, the real challenge is no longer to divide marketing budget between ATL (Above The Line) and BTL (Below The Line), but to be able to look at the life-cycle of a brand and aptly marry it with brand intentions, he added.
Narula opined that digital marketing gives the industry more mileage in less time and budget as conventional market is a slow process. However, Mittal believes that both have their own advantages and disadvantages. “It completely depends on the kind of targeted audiences and various other factors. We prefer doing both at times,” he said.
The future of mobile apps
The innovation in mobile apps is astounding and the possibilities for further development endless. Abacus, for one, currently offers 500 apps for the travel agents and the technology is open-source so that they can customise those provided even further to suit their specific needs. The mobile apps are a huge focus for the company which has more products waiting in the pipeline.
Ixigo.com has introduced six innovative mobile applications in the Google Play Store (Android and iOS platforms) that offer useful travel information for specific use cases. “We recently added reviews of trains and train stations to our trains app and have received great response from real users. We are also expanding to Windows OS for our apps and already have the ixigo brand app on the Windows platform,” revealed Srivastava.
In the last five years, Travelport has invested over US$400 million in research and development to provide solutions that meet the business needs of customers and reduce their overall cost of revenue. Travelport has already launched some revolutionary products such as Smartpoint, Travelport Rooms and More.
In the near future more revolutionary products such as Travelport mobile App, Universal API, Travelport Merchandising Solutions etc are expected to be available for Indian market. These are all solutions which are aimed towards creating new benefits and value for the travel chain. “These products not only bring in efficiency for the travel agents but also create alternate revenue streams for them,” explained Dwivedi.
MakeMyTrip has a travel-inspiration app called TripIdeas which offers holiday and destination trivia to inspire people to travel, and an app called Routeplanner which enables trip-planning between any two destinations in India faster and easier.
