The number of visitors to the Indian travel sites has jumped by 32 percent in the past year, according to a study of the online travel industry done by comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world,
The study found that in April 2011, 18.5 million online users visited a travel site from a home or work location as against 13.9 million users in April 2010.
As expected, Indian Railways website led as the most-visited travel destination with 8.4 million Indians using the railway site to book tickets. This was an increase of 8 percent from the previous year when 7.7 million Indians had used the railway site.
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 percent), followed by Yatra Online with 3.5 million visitors (up 82 percent), and ClearTrip.com with more than 2.1 million visitors (up 80 percent). The U.S.-based Expedia Inc. secured the #5 position with 1.8 million visitors (up 12 percent).
The study also found an overlap in the number of visitors logging onto the top three OTAs. According to the press release issued by comScore: “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 percent) visited two or more of the three sites in April 2011. The remaining 71 percent of visitors checked in at only one of the three sites during the month demonstrating relatively strong brand loyalty among the top players.”
Kedar Gavane, comScore Director for India, commenting on the jump cautioned: “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.”
