Your holiday in Dubai just got a little cheaper. Thanks to Dubai World's crash, travel portals and agencies like MakeMyTrip, Yatra, Cleartrip and SOTC are offering packages at prices almost 40 percent lower than a week or two ago.
Move aimed at forcing airlines to revoke decision to withdraw 5 per cent commission.
With commissions from domestic airline ticket sales falling victim to lower fares over the past two years, online travel portals like Travelguru, Cleartrip, Yatra and Makemytrip are increasingly exploring non-airline business avenues like hotel bookings, car and bus rentals and holiday package tours to boost revenues.
"The (number of ) people flying business class has seen a decline of over 40 per cent in the domestic routes and 20 per cent internationally," said Ajay Prakash, general secretary, Travel Agents Federation of India.
Education technology, grocery, fashion, food delivery and UPI payments surpassed volumes or revenues of February, in the September-October period.
While portals such as makemytrip, cleartrip and ezeego have seen a rise of 30 per cent in advance booking in the first week of January, others such as yatra and travelocity, with a 10-15 per cent surge, are also expecting more bookings in the coming weeks. The cleverly-introduced advanced booking fares have induced passengers to book tickets until as late as November.
As the demand for air travel picks up in the smaller towns across the country, travel portals are aggressively moving into these markets outside the six metros wooing aspirant air travellers with easier booking facilities. Most of the prominent travel sites like makemytrip, yatra and cleartrip claim that the places to look at now are smaller cities like Varanasi, Surat, Chandigarh, Baroda, Ludhiana, Vizag and Coimbatore.
Travel portals are looking to encash the rising mobile user base for their value-added services.
This season, even as airlines hike fares and go stingy on discounts, customers are gaining from the various offers given by travel portals.
Hotels are using a combination of platforms to reach out to the guests. These include online travel agents among others. hotels in India are offering guests an option to pay now and stay later.
With SpiceJet and Simplifly Deccan all set to give away similar throw-away offers and GoAir looking for similar tie-ups with travel portals, air travellers can expect around 25,000 such cheap-fare tickets on offer up to April 15.
Travel companies and agencies are offering early bird discounts going up to 40 per cent. Priyadarshini Maji reports
At this price, the ticket would be about 65 per cent cheaper than other return fares.
Among the Indian carriers, Air India, Air India Express, IndiGo, and SpiceJet operate flights to Saudi Arabia while Saudi Arabian Airlines and Flynas are the two carriers operating in India.
Aggregators provide standardised amenities and predictability of services, whereas online travel agents give wider choices and packaged travel deals.
With 2015 having multiple weekend breaks, travel agents and online travel portals expect a holiday rush this year.
It aims to grow gross merchandise value to Rs 19,000-25,500 crore.
Customers would be able to make money transfers, pay utility bills and recharge their mobile and DTH connections with just one click and a single PIN entry
Can a woman stay in the same hotel room with a man she is not married to or vice versa? Seems an outdated question in this day and age? Not exactly, says the hospitality industry.
The sooner the airlines get their act together, the better.
However, in recent times, the clout that trader bodies such as CAIT and other organisations like Swadeshi Jagran Manch and Laghu Udyog Bharati has is steadily increasing. Earlier this year, trader bodies were able to convince the government not to extend the deadline for implementation of the new norms in FDI policy on e-commerce.
Budget travelers, these monsoon getaways are meant for you!
Jet Airways, IndiGo have gained market shares as SpiceJet cancels flights.
The present Puja is as much about having fun as it is tied in with bowing to the Mother Goddess.
'Google and Facebook need to be tamed, their garb of 'Investing in India's future' need to be pulled off,' observes Vibhu Arya.
The biggest attractions of the phone are the Sunlight Display and virtual IVR.
Tamil Nadu Election Candidates, TN 2016, Deepika Election Live, Thanjavur Election are some of the apps keeping people hooked to their handsets.
The new-age traveler is no longer into ticking a checklist of must-see spots on his holiday. He is ready to pay a premium to experience culture, crafts and culinary delights of the local populace
One reason is that airlines have ramped up capacity and expanded their presence in tier-II markets. The first of a three-part series analyses how the aviation industry is an outlier in the midst of an overall economic slowdown.
While Google has market capitalisation of almost $753 billion and Facebook commands one of $515 billion, it is the wealth of user data they have that one fears
According to a survey by travel portal ixigo, economy airfares from Mumbai have shot up by almost 25- 30 per cent till the end of March.
Opting for a lightweight, waterproof back pack is ideal for a monsoon trek.
DoT will have wider consultations with all stakeholders.
Deals from online travel portals, in partnership with credit cards, are good.
There were fewer promotion sales in January-February this year.
SBI Cards on Tuesday launched a credit card especially meant for transactions on e-commerce websites.
Initiative aims to encourage more people to use the Internet.
With the launch of Woohoo, QwikCilver now targets two markets in India - the gifting market, worth $7 billion and gift cards as a category.
A new found love for world music is compelling enough to make individuals travel.
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