■ Travel sector to touch $48bn: Study
Digital planning is gaining importance, says Google
The domestic travel market is expected to grow at 11-11.5 per cent to $48 billion by 2020 amidst a strong growth in smart phones and digital payment modes that will make it easier for travel research, planning and booking, said a joint study done by Google India and Boston Consulting Group.
The biggest contributor to this growth would be air travel, which is likely to be grow at 15 per cent to $30 billion.
Hotels will grow at 13 per cent to $13 billion by 2020 while railways will remain largely stagnant at $5 billion.
“India’s domestic travel market is on an acceleration path. One of the key findings of the report is that by 2020, one in three hotel rooms will be booked online — a clear indicator of the growing importance of digital in travel research, planning and booking. There are several actionable insights for domestic online travel players including the role of mobile and the level of curation and personalisation that Indian travellers are looking for,” said Vikas Agnihotri, industry director, Google.
Demystifying the travel planning journey of the typical Indian consumer, the report showed that for a majority of Indian consumers a vacation is a well thought through event, the planning for which starts several weeks in advance.
On average, travel consumers spend 49 minutes spread over 46 days, visiting as many as 17 different online touch points to plan, research and make a booking.
However, it is interesting to note that the length of each online session is less than 3 minutes, due to the ubiquity of mobile. Through their journey, Indian travellers tend to flip back and forth across different online destinations, checking availability and comparing prices across different providers and connectivity.
Highlighting the purchase drivers, the report finds that there are several touch points in the consumer journey, including online travel agents (64 per cent reach), search engines (33 per cent reach) and maps (26 per cent reach).
The research also found that consumers use a mix of online and offline sources of information during their booking journeys. However, only 12 per cent of the consumers prefer to use offline sources for research. Around 57 per cent of the consumers believe that online channels give them better deals while 41 per cent find it more convenient for them to book online.