Sold On The Net

More and more corporates are surfing the Internet for information about the best destinations and deals. Bhisham Mansukhani and Charmaine Fernz trail the latest web explorations…

Indian corporates are no longer just gleaning websites for information. They are freezing travel plans online. Travel websites had their initial days in the sun before the dotcom bust earlier in the new millennium took most of them under. They are now back in earnest.

The Internet is a facilitator and offers an advanced interface for business travel management on two levels. On a macro level, the Internet can allow corporations to keep their travel policy up-to-date and viewed through their Intranet by eligible persons only. This allows executives to be kept abreast of all that they are entitled to, to book within their authorisation, for bookings to be authorised as need be, to be then processed by the in-house travel agent and to be auto billed and accounted for leading to payment settlement - all via a desktop computer.

Travelportindia, the web extension of Travel Port Holidays India Ltd, has in the last four years been offering customised interfaces to the companies they service. "Each of our clients have access to a website that is customised as per their need assessments. We also have a specialised division for loyalty programme for corporates. The online interface for corporates exists in tandem with the brick and mortar establishment. We have helped corporates devise loyalty programmes that include a travel component in order to incentivise performance and target achievement," said Heena Javed Akhtar, COO, Travel Port Holidays India Ltd.

"There are many tools already available and the best part is that the software can be customised to suit corporations' independent needs. Many corporations being serviced by professional corporate travel agents are already using the Internet but this has not been quantified in India," said Gautam Chadha, chairman and CEO, Journeymartindia.com.

Consumer Convenience Does It

The second level at which the Internet has engaged the corporate is that of personal travel, separated only moderately from the segment of mass travel retail. Corporate travellers, are increasingly dovetailing their official trips with tourism and corporate travel agents see no reason why they cannot integrate leisure into their bouquet of services - a point endorsed by no less than arguably the world's largest corporate travel firm, TQ3's president, CEO and global board chairman, Marc Hildebrand. "The vacations business is hard to ignore as we have noticed a consistent trend of executives extending their business trip to holiday in select destinations and even flying their families in. Now these individuals are by habit as keen themselves as is the organisation when it deals with us. They need to be fed information and convinced they are getting the best deal. Why should they not book their holidays with the same agent who services their entire organisation?" Hildebrand asked.

The challenge herein for travel portals, most experts point out, is to make a compelling case to the potential passenger to make the computer monitor the literal one-stop shop for sealing travel transactions - no need to get out of one's comfort zone, meet a counter staff or mull over a brochure. The travel portal has to replicate that entire process with a thrust on customer empowerment and convenience. Deep Kalra, CEO, Makemytrip.com, has had some success in doing that. "It's all about making it easy for the consumer and in his best interest. The website must put out a plethora of choices for a passenger. He should be able to compare rates offered by different suppliers on the same screen, work out equations from the comfort of his own home without having to be given a preset gamut of options by the travel agent. Sites must ask for user reviews which would throw up a whole range of ideas and even criticism which can be channelised towards making the site user-friendly. It should pretty much be his site," opines Kalra.

Back For Good

Travel websites have been presumed a complementing bridesmaid to the orthodox brick and mortar format for a long time, their plight compounded further by the burst of the infamous dotcom bubble in the late '90s and a sudden commercial aversion for all things Internet. It has been a bumpy ride, for websites for various industries and much like most of them, travel portals in India have begun to arrive with the assurance of not just sustenance but profit, tapping the affluent travellers and creating revenue streams that exceed the basic holiday package. Indian travel websites have thawed through the cliché of being information processors for curious, iffy surfers. They are making money.

Journeymart.com is one such site. Chadha says, "Good travel portals have two inherent USPs - first, travel lends itself naturally and easily to the visual and immediate Internet medium. It is a product that the web can almost tangibly display to the user and customer. Second, travel portals instantly respond to a user's quest, i.e., they provide travel information - destination, products and services - and they provide an ability to query and transact in real-time online. Unlike a vanilla portal that may skim the surface of varied and general information and then lead nowhere, thereby leaving a frustrated user, a good travel portal will target a traveller's needs, offer choices and fulfil his travel requirement. Give a customer what he wants where he wants it."

Traveljini.com is a website that has endured through the hard, flat times and incessant industrial skepticism to evolve a sustainable business model. Anaggh Desai, CEO, Traveljini.com, offers his insight into how to make a travel site go to work. "In one word - focus. The economy on an upward swing, people willing to travel and more importantly experiment with travel, has added to the success. Everyone wanted to be the leader in travel in the Internet space in 2000, leading to chaos. Today after the shakeout, there is a healthy respect for the Internet space and travel people are using Internet as a distribution business model instead of wanting to encash a quick buck," says Desai.

"The difference lies in the kind of display, the immediacy of transaction and interactivity and the importance of updated information. This difference is important to success within the Internet medium," says Chadha.

The Second Coming

The hedonistic aspirations of the dotcom aspirants during the bloodbath towards the close of the last decade were held chiefly responsible for the fall from grace. The vanguards of the second dotcom revolution are sanguine about their prospects this time around and not without reason. At the time of the dotcom bust in 2000, the travel industry in India had yet to discover the power and potential of the Internet and realise how well it was suited to their trade. There was a meagre understanding of web technology in general. Most companies were apprehensive about using the Internet and about facilities in the country for users to access the web. Dial-up connections were slow and few and far between. Not many people could visualise how great the leap would be and how fast it would come about. The few travel websites that existed were basically brochure websites and belonged to companies like airlines or large hotel chains that had an international presence and were beginning to realise that an international internet market had begun to slowly emerge.

Today, Air Deccan, an Indian start-up, sells exclusively through their website and offline offices; the Indian Railways website has gone a long way in engendering faith in the efficiency of selling and buying a travel product easily off the web. There are some who are keen to hop onto the new age bandwagon but aren't quite there yet. The reason why the pitch this time around seems a lot more favourable for dotcoms to consolidate is the changing profile of the traveller and the social landscape of the country. India is fast becoming one of the best networked countries in the world. The Indian traveller is ready to put up his credit card details and his passport number on a secure site. He buys his railway tickets online and shops on auction sites. He is a member of a burgeoning middle and upper class where affordability is increasing, spending is on a high, and travel is a necessary luxury.

The confidence of India's second generation of dotcom successes is undoubtedly the result of experience. The core experience of this batch of dotcommers spans an understanding of the offline travel business and modern technology along with the skill to integrate the two. More such enterprises could well catapult India to the hitherto pinnacle of global travel transacting.