India continues to foray more into digital travel booking
India continued to foray more into digital travel booking with a greater emphasis on mobile transactions in 2016, according to a survey by travel portal Yatra.
“With smartphone prices crashing and penetration increasing rapidly, the Indian consumers are rapidly using mobile devices as their primary means to book travel. We have seen close to 40% of our bookings and 67% of our traffic are coming via the mobile website and mobile applications,” the portal said in a release.
There was a rise in online bookings too. Moreover, hoteliers are using the online route to interact with customers during their travel journey. Online penetration of hotel bookings in India “is still in low double digits and we expect the trend of increasing online hotel bookings to continue in 2017,” Yatra said.
The use of plastic money has increased post demonetisation. The Yatra survey indicated the inclination of Indian travellers to use credit/ debit card over cash. 37.4% travellers choose plastic money over cash for making bookings and while travelling.
“The ban on old 500 and 1000 rupee notes further led to a significant 57.9% travellers booking through the desktop & smartphone and a drastic dip in booking through offline agents. We think this is a trend that we will see more of in 2017,” said the survey.
On the flipped, demonetization has had a downward impact on inbound travel. Solo travelling also gained popularity during the year. According to the Yatra survey, 11% travelers opted to be on their own in their planned holiday.
News Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com
You might also like
Norwegian Bliss becomes largest Passenger Ship to Traverse Panama Canal
Norwegian Bliss completed yet another milestone, as she makes her way to her home port of Seattle, becoming the largest passenger ship to transit the Panama Canal since the completion
Yash Chandhok joins Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts as Sales Manager in India
Yash Chandhok has joined Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts as the Sales Manager in India. Yash will be responsible for driving the sales and brand building of Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts
Singapore Tourism Board connects with travel trade in three cities
2017 was a record year for Singapore Tourism Board – India jumps to third largest source market for visitors into Singapore India has moved up to the third position from
