SUMMER TRAINING REPORT ON MARKETING STRATEGIES OF YATRA.COM AT
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement For the degree of BACHELOR’S OF BUSINESS ASMINISTRATION (Travel and Tourism Management) Session 2009-2012
SUBMITTED BY: KRITI MAHESHWARI Enrollment No: 00414905009 BBA (T&TM) 5th Semester
MAHARAJA SURAJMAL INSTITUTE BBA (Travel and Tourism Management) (2009-2012)
Recognized by UGC u/s 2(f) Affiliated to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University C-4, Janakpuri, New Delhi Session- 2009-2012
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
It is my pleasu pleasure re to be indeb indebted ted to vario various us people people,, who direc directly tly or indire indirect ctly ly contrib contributed uted in the develop development ment of this work and who influenc influenced ed my thinking thinking,, behavior and acts during the course of internship.
I express my sincere gratitude to Mr.Narayan Mallapur,General Manager,Outbound for providing me an opportunity to undergo summer training at Yatra.com.
I am thankful to Mrs.Vibha Kamboj,Manager,Outbound for her support,cooperation,and motivation provided to me during the training for constant inspiration, presence and blessings.
I also extend my sincere appreciation to Mrs.Garima Bhardwaj,Assistant Manager,Outbound who provided his/her valuable suggestions and precious time in accomplishing my project report.
Lastly, I would like to thank the almighty and my parents for their moral support and my friends with whom I shared my day-to-day experience and received lots of suggestions that improved my quality of work.
Kriti Maheshwari
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1 • • • •
INTRODUCTION OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY RESEARCH METHODOLOGY LIMITATIONS
CHAPTER 2 • • • • • • • • • •
INTRODUCTION
COMPANY PROFILE
OVERVIEW OF THE COMPANY MARKET SCENARIO THEN & NOW YATRA’S MARKETING STRATEGIES ONLINE MARKETING PLANS LEARNINGS UNDERSTANDING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING MARKETING ON MOBILES EXECUTIVE MARKET DVELOPMENT STRATEGY YATRA’S PRODUCTS & PROMOTIONS
CHAPTER 3
ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION OF DATA
CHAPTER 4
CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS
QUESTIONNAIRE BIBLIOGRAPHY
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
TOURISM INDUSTRY • • •
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It has been a major social phenomenon of societies all over the world. Driven by the natural urge of every human being for new experiences. It acts as an instrument of economic development and employment generation. Globally large service industry in terms of gross revenue and foreign exchange earnings. Stimulates other economic sectors like agriculture, transport, construction etc.
TOURISM INDUSTRY IN INDIA Tourism industry in India is on a great boom at the moment. India has tremendous potential to become a major global tourist destination and Indian tourism industry is exploiting this potential to the hilt. Travel and tourism industry is the second highest foreign exchange earner for India, and the government has given travel & tourism organizations export house status. The buoyancy in the Indian tourism industry can be attributed to several factors. Firstly, the tremendous growth of Indian economy has resulted in more disposable income in the hands of middle class, thereby prompting increasingly large number of people to spend money on vacations abroad or at home. Secondly, India is a booming IT hub and more and more people are coming to India on business trips. Thirdly, aggressive advertising campaign "Incredible India" by Tourism Ministry has played a major role in changing the image of India from that of the land of snake charmers to a hot and happening place and has sparked renewed interest among foreign travelers. Travel & tourism industry's contribution to Indian industry is immense. Tourism is one of the main foreign exchange earners and contributes to the economy indirectly through its linkages with other sectors like horticulture, agriculture, poultry, handicrafts and construction. Tourism industry also provides employment to millions of people in India both directly and indirectly through its linkage with other sectors of the economy. According to an estimate total direct employment in the tourism sector is around 20 million.
Travel & tourism industry in India is marked by considerable government presence. Each state has a tourism corporation, which runs a chain of hotels/ rest houses and operates package tours, while the central government runs the India Tourism Development Corporation.
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It is the largest service sector in India. Contribution of 6.23% to the national GDP & 8.78% of the total employment in India. Revenue generated from tourism was about US $100 billion in 2008which is expected to increase to US $275.5 billion by 2018 at a 9.4% annual growth.
ONLINE TRAVEL •
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It is a collection of tourist’s service activities that combines with ECommerce via Internet. It is considered as the big portion of E-Commerce because it includes all common elements of tourist activities. Such as hotels, airlines, travel agents, car rentals, tourist sites, bazaars and tourist guides.
ADVANTAGES OF ONLINE TRAVEL • • •
Facilitation of information Price Reductions Competition
INDIAN ONLINE TRAVEL INDUSTRY • • •
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It is expected to be worth of US $6 billion in 2010. IRCTC is the most successful ecommerce initiative in India. IRCTC contributed Rs.340 million to the total ecommerce business of Rs.900 million. Other travel portals include Makemytrip, Yatra, Cleartrip and Travel guru etc. Driven by aviation sector. Crowded with more than 20 Online Travel Agencies.
REASONS FOR THE GROWTH • • •
Growth of interest Growth in low-cost carriers Secure payment mechanisms
MAIN CHALLENGES • •
Low margins and high operating costs. Poor internet and credit card penetration.
TRENDS •
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Competition in online ticket booking is moving away from air to non-air segments. Online travel going mobile: changing E-Travel to M-Travel. OTA’s looking for offline counters leveraging on their brand value. Meta search engine is the latest innovation in Online Travel Industry.
BROAD AREAS OF ONLINE TRAVEL INDUSTRY IN INDIA • • • • •
Ticket booking-Air & Non Air. Tele Reservations Car Rentals Tour Packages Air travel dominates the current online travel industry in India with 60%+ market share.
ONLINE TRAVEL AGENCIES •
As per 2008, Online Travel Agency Business in India is estimated to be approx. $800 million.
ONLINE TRAVEL AGENCIES IN INDIA
Thomas Cook India SOTC Tours Club Mahindra Holidays Kuoni Travel Group,India Makemytrip Cleartrip Travelguru Travelocity Viaworld etc
Such growth factors have significantly led to emergence and establishment of more and more travel companies that makes the process of traveling simpler and convenient for the customers. More than thousands of travel companies have laid their hand in the field of travel and tourism and most of them have gained success. Travel companies are the largest contributor to the country’s economy and growth rate. One of such company is discussed in this project-YATRA.COM.
YATRA.COM
Yatra.com is India’s leading online travel company. We provide information, pricing, availability, and booking facility for domestic and international air travel, railway reservation, hotel bookings, holiday packages, buses, and car rentals. We offer a host of travel services designed to make business and leisure travel easier. Based in Gurgaon, India, Yatra is a one-stop-shop for all travel-related services. A leading consolidator of travel products, Yatra.com provides reservation facility for more than 3,800 hotels across 336 cities in India and over 90,000 hotels around the world. We partner with domestic and international airlines to offer flight-booking services at the best rates. Through a close working alliance alliance with all leading airlines, we are able to offer negotiated rates for flight bookings for travel from and into and within India. All products at Yatra.com come with a best price guarantee and an assurance of instant booking. Customers can access Yatra.com through multiple ways: through our user-friendly website, 24x7 multi-lingual call center, a countrywide network of Holiday Lounges
and Yatra Yatra Trave Travell Expres Expresss stores stores or thr throug ough h their their mobil mobilee phones phones.. Yatra Yatra.co .com m prov provid ides es book bookin ing g faci facili lity ty for for all all the the popu popula larr as well well as exot exotic ic nati nation onal al and and international destinations. Launc Launched hed in August August 2006, 2006, Yatra Yatra is today today ranke ranked d as the leadi leading ng provi provider der of consumer-direct travel services in India. Yatra.com has emerged as the most trusted travel brand in India and we were recently voted ‘Most Trusted Branded of India’ in the online travel category by Brand Equity, and also received the coveted "most preferred online travel company" award at the CNBC/Awaaz Consumer Travel Awards from the Hon Tourism Minister of IndiaSmt Kumari Shailja . Within this short span of time, Yatra has shown an impressive growth by currently posting average revenue of $60 million a month with a volume of over 10,000 tickets and 600 rooms a day. The company achieved a gross turnover of approximately US$500 million for FY 2011.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY •
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The objective of the study is to get an insight into the working of the travel company. To comprehensively analyze the Online Travel Industry. To find out the market share of Yatra.com in Indian Online Travel Industry. To design the marketing strategies such as to
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The study undertaken was exploratory in nature laying emphasis on finding out information specific to the industry. The sources utilised for data collection are primary and secondary. Primary data was obtained by going in for personal interview and casual interaction with employees. The secondary data was collected from various sources like internet, magazines etc. Data can be collected through two sources: 1. Primary Data:Primary sources are original sources from which the researcher directly collects data that have not been previously collected. Primary data are first hand information collected through various methods such as observation, interviewing, mailing etc E.g.. Collection of data directly by there searcher on brand awareness, brand preference, brand loyalty & other aspects of consumer behavior from a sample of consumers by interviewing them. 2. Secondary Data:These are sources containing data which have been collected and compiled for another purpose. The secondary sources consists of already compiled statistical statements & reports whose data may be used by researchers for their studies .E.g., census reports, annual reports & financial statements of companies, statistical statements, reports of Govt departments, annual reports of currency & finance published by the Reserve Bank of India. In this project all the data have been collected from the primary sources. I have trued to go on field for my training purposes and have conducted a market survey for this report of mine.
LIMITATIONS The limitations that were faced are mentioned below: 1) The response responsess of the officials officials were not not always free free from bias bias because because of some compulsions and busy schedules did not help the matter. Also the availability of the officials was always a cause of concern for getting relevant information. 2) Cost factor factor is always always a cause cause of limitation limitation creepin creeping g into the project, project, though though an effort was made to overcome it.
CHAPTER 2
COMPANY PROFILE
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Yatra.com is India’s leading online travel company. We provide information, pricing, availability, and booking facility for domestic and international air travel, railway reservation, hotel bookings, holiday packages, buses, and car rentals. We offer a host of travel services designed to make business and leisure travel easier. Based in Gurgaon, India, Yatra is a one-stop-shop for all travel-related services. A leading consolidator of travel products, Yatra.com provides reservation facility for more than 3,800 hotels across 336 cities in India and over 90,000 hotels around the world. We partner with domestic and international airlines to offer flight-booking services at the best rates. Through a close working alliance alliance with all leading airlines, we are able to offer negotiated rates for flight bookings for travel from and into and within India. All products at Yatra.com come with a best price guarantee and an assurance of instant booking. Customers can access Yatra.com through multiple ways: through our user-friendly website, 24x7 multi-lingual call center, a countrywide network of Holiday Lounges and Yatra Yatra Trave Travell Expres Expresss stores stores or thr throug ough h the their ir mobil mobilee phones phones.. Yatra Yatra.co .com m prov provid ides es book bookin ing g faci facili lity ty for for all all the the popu popula larr as well well as exot exotic ic nati nation onal al and and international destinations. Launc Launched hed in August August 2006, 2006, Yatra Yatra is today today ranke ranked d as the leadi leading ng provi provider der of consumer-direct travel services in India. Yatra.com has emerged as the most trusted travel brand in India and we were recently voted ‘Most Trusted Branded of India’ in the online travel category by Brand Equity, and also received the coveted "most preferred online travel company" award at the CNBC/Awaaz Consumer Travel Awards from the Hon Tourism Minister of IndiaSmt Kumari Shailja . Within this short span of time, Yatra has shown an impressive growth by currently posting average revenue of $60 million a month with a volume of over 10,000 tickets and 600 rooms a day. The company achieved a gross turnover of approximately US$500 million for FY 2011.
The Yatra Team Sonia Mehta, Chief Customer Experience Officer Sonia joins Yatra.com with over 18 years of diverse, cross-functional experience in the fields of trainings, marketing, and customer service and account management in the Indian travel industry. Her skill in dealing with clients, understanding their needs and deliver consistently high quality service makes her an ideal choice for the role of Yatra.com’s Chief Customer Experience Officer. Before joining Yatra, Sonia was heading Key Accounts and Ecommerce for InterGlobe Technology Quotient, which represents both Galileo and Worldspan in India. Her previous roles also include working with Galileo India as Head of Trainings, InterGlobe Technologies as part of the Business Development and Strategy group, Head of Marketing and Corporate Communications for InterGlobe Enterprises. At Yatra.com, Sonia is responsible for ensuring that each and every customer has a world-class experience when interacting with us, be it in any channel: online, call center, or retail stores. She is charged with ensuring that at each touch point the customer experiences Yatra’s service excellence.
Dhruv Shringi, Co-Founder & CEO Dhruv Shringi is the Co-Founder & CEO Yatra Online Pvt. Ltd. Dhruv leads the company’s business initiatives across continents. Dhruv in a very short span of time, by making innovations in the field of travel and tourism, has made his unique identity in the online travel industry. He has contributed actively in rejuvenating the methods of the industry. Since its successful launch in January 2006, Dhruv, has lead Yatra.com to grow from a 3 member organisation to a 700 people strong organisation - thus making Yatra.com the leading travel brand in the country. His most recent role prior to Yatra.com was as Director Group Operations and Technology of the Ebookers Group, where he was responsible for sales of over $850 million achieved thruough multiple channels including online, call centers and retail shops, 600 people and a cost budget of $70 million. Prior to his stint at Ebookers, he worked with Ford Motor Company in their Business Strategy team based in London, where he was part of the European Business Turnaround team. He also has significant work experience in India having spent over 6 years with Arthur Andersen based in their office in Delhi. Dhruv holds
an MBA from INSEAD and is also a qualified Chartered Accountant.Dhruv is an avid reader and enjoys playing golf in his leisure time.
Manish Amin, Co-Founder & CIO Manish Amin is returning to India after having been based in London for the past 28 years. He is a veteran of the travel industry with over 20 years experience in the Travel and IT industry, 15 of which were with Ebookers where in his last role he was the Head of Technology Infrastructure responsible for managing 24x7 availability of the website and multi-location call centres of Ebookers. He managed setting up a new data centre for the Online and Offline applications. He also helped designed and rolled out MPLS connectivity and implemented a new Telephone system across the ebookers Group in Europe and Delhi. He brings with him vast knowledge and experience with proven success in Business Strategy, Sales/Call Centre Delivery, Operations Logistics, Travel Applications, Infrastructure, Software Development and Support Process.He is commercially astute with a passion for driving organisational change to deliver core business objectives.
Alok Vaish, CFO Alok heads Yatra’s Finance function and is responsible for setting overall strategic direction, long term planning and growth strategy, fund raising, mergers & acquisitions, financial planning, budgeting, cash management, investor relations, corporate secretarial functions and fiscal management policies of the Company. Alok has more than fifteen years of finance and operational experience spanning myriad roles in his career. Prior to this, Alok was the CFO of HSIL Limited, which is the largest publicly listed bathroom products company in India. Before returning to India, Alok spent nine years in New York where he was in Investment Banking with Deutsche Bank, New York, and was responsible for M&A transactions in excess of US $60 billion. Alok is an MBA from the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia (USA). He is also a rank holder Chartered Accountant, Company Secretary and B.Com (Hons.) from Delhi University.
Sabina Chopra, Co-Founder and EVP Operations Sabina is the EVP Operations, managing the sales, fulfillment, and after sales support for all Yatra businesses. She also heads Yatra’s domestic hotel business,
where she uses her expertise of the hospitality business in India to ensure that Yatra’s hotel product is the best on offer. Prior to Yatra, Sabina headed India based Operations of ebookers, Europe’s largest online travel company. She was responsible for setting up, transitioning and management of Customer Service, Sales, Air Ticketing, Hotel Sales, Email and Online Departments. The Sales teams, under her leadership, doubled the targets in less than 6 months. The fulfillment teams consistently met and increased customer satisfaction for the European countries based customers. She has also worked with Japan Airlines, a Canadian Airline and her BPO work experience includes heading Operations for RAC (Aviva Plc) and Hewitt Associates. Sabina brings with her over 16 years of work experience has through knowledge of all facets of the Travel BPO Industry and an extensive network within the Indian travel community. Her strengths are Operations and Delivery, Customer Care and Retention. Sabina holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Delhi University.
Gautam Kaul, COO (Inbound - Yatra Exotic Routes) Gautam joined Yatra in late 2008 to set up the Inbound business and is currently responsible for managing all holidays and hotels businesses in India . Prior to joining Yatra, Gautam was the Snr Vice President responsible for running a significant part of Kuoni India’s inbound destination management business. Gautam is a veteran of the travel industry having spent over 26 yrs in the industry in cross functional roles. He has during the course of his career managed various aspects of the business including Sales, Operations, Quality Control and Vendor Management. Gautam has a very strong understanding of the Indian domestic holiday market as well and has excellent relationships with the hotels and other vendors critical for this business. Gautam is a graduate from University of Kashmir, Jammu & Kashmir where he studied a course in Tourism.
Nag Thota, CTO Nag has over 17 years of experience in Information and Technology. Nag returned to India in 2007 after working in USA for 12 years and in Singapore for 2 years. His most recent role prior to Yatra.com was as a Senior Manager at Amazon India Development Center managing Transportation team. Prior to his stint at Amazon, he was Senior Manager at Yahoo! Southeast Asia managing Yahoo! Front Page, Travel, Media, Messenger and Finance for six Southeast Asian countries. As a Yahoo! Global Services Sr. Technical Manager, he successfully launched MySabre+Merlin Agency portal, Sabre Sonic Airline Solutions and Back End office solutions.
Prior to this he worked with BroadVision Inc. as Technical Manager and launched e-commerce web sites for Samsclub, Nortel Networks, eMD.com, Rockwell Automation and Wal-Mart Stores. He holds MS in Engineering from Texas A&M University, University, Kingsville, Kingsville, USA. Awards Won Brand Equity and Nielsen Company’s survey ranks Yatra.com as the No.1 online travel service provider New Delhi, September 01, 2010: In a recent survey released by Brand Equity on ‘Most Trusted Brands’, Yatra Yatra.co .com m emerg emerged ed as the indust industry ry leade leaderr in the online travel space leaving behind some of the well known players like makemytrip, makemytrip, cleartrip and irtctc. Conducted by Nielsen Company, the survey is the largest of its kind in India, with a sample size of 8, 160 done across socio economic classes, age, income and geograph geography. y. Yatra.co Yatra.com m grabbed grabbed 14th 14th positio position n amongst the top 50 digital brands ahead of some of the most popular brands like Twitter that was on 18th spot.
In its tenth year, the study threw up a lot of surprises with new entrants, the entrenched, and ones who have stood the test of time. As trust becomes a key differentiator in the market exploding with brands, this definitive listing is a must for marketer marketers, s, adverti advertising sing firms, firms, and, and, of course, course, consumer consumers. s. After After conside considerabl rablee brainstorming by Brand equity & Nielsen, the lists of 300 brands (217 consumer products and 83 service brands) were finalized. Each brand was then evaluated on several parameters. Sample size was identified on the basis of chief wage earners who contribute maximum to the household income and the survey was restricted to SEC A, B and C in urban India, with a view to focus on the prime target audience for consumer-branded products and services.
Yatra.com felicitated as the most preferred travel portal at CNBC Awaaz ‘Travel Awards 2010’ New Delhi, September 13, 2010: Leading company in the online travel space, Yatra.com received the prestigious ‘CNBC Awaaz Travel Awards’ ‘10 in the category of the ‘Most Preferred Travel Portal’ at ‘CNBC Awaaz Travel Awards 2010’. Business channel CNBC AWAAZ, in association with e-commerce business One Stop Shop, honored India’s best-in-class travel destinations and tourism ancillary services at the fourth edition of the CNBC AWAAZ Travel Awards 2010. Yatra.com was awarded for its manifold achievements in providing a complete travel solution to the customers thereby creating newer standards with its unique and innovative business models. The theme of the awards this year was ‘Ghoom India Ghoom’ felicitating patrons of the Indian travel and tourism industry who have time and again proved their vision and expertise on the global scale. CNBC Awaaz Travel Awards 2010 is the second most significant achievement of Yatra.com in this year, after emerging as the industry leader in the online travel space in a recently released Brand Equity survey. CNBC AWAAZ had conducted an exhaustive consumer response survey with The Nielsen Company with an objective to felicitate the best in the travel and tourism industry, identify India’s travel potential, highlights decision making criteria and gains a deeper understanding of the consumer mindset. This research study also presented “India’s Most Preferred Travel Brands and Tourist Destinations” across various travel categories. The research consisted of 2000 respondents comprising of the consumers, adventurous sports enthusiasts, corporates and members of the trade and tourism industry across 11 cities within the age group of 20 – 55 years belonging to SEC A / B1, both males and females.
Yatra.Com – The Only Indian Online Travel Company Awarded by Red Herring for the ‘2008 – Top 100 Start Ups in Asia’ Award Recognizes the 100 “Most Promising” Asian Companies Driving the Future of Technology New Delhi, December 8, 2008: Yatra.com, one of the largest and leading online travel companies in India, has been announced as a winner of the ‘2008 Red Herring Top 100 Start-ups’ in Asia, a selection of the 100 most innovative private technology companies based in Asia.
This is a prestigious award which recognizes startups that will lead the next wave with innovative and potentially disruptive technologies. The Red Herring editorial board diligently surveyed the entrepreneurial scene throughout Asia and identified the top 100 out of more than 1,000 closely evaluated companies that are leading the next wave of innovation. The 100 winning companies have been announced at the Red Herring Asia event in Hong Kong. “Our winners and Finalists demonstrate that Asia is increasingly becoming a leader in innovation, contrary to common stereotypes," said Joel Dreyfuss, editor-in-chief of Red Herring." It was tough to choose just the top 100 finalists from such a large list of excellent contenders, and we are very happy with the quality of the companies we selected as finalists." Established in August 2006, Yatra.com has fast grown to become India’s leading travel company, serving over 1 million customers. Yatra.com believes in providing the best in class services to its customers and reaches out to them through its website, 24x7 call centres and 15 retail Holiday Lounges spread across the country. Yatra.com has an employee base of more than 700. The Company achieved a turnover of $120 million in the year 2007 and projects a turnover of US $ 220 million by the end of calendar year 2008. Speaking on being awarded, Dhruv Shringi, Co founder & CEO, Yatra.com, said, "We are extremely delighted and humbled to be shortlisted for this very prestigious category. Being the only Indian travel company to be awarded endorses our position as a leading player in the online travel space.” He also presented his innovative ideas and technologies to an audience of leading entrepreneurs, financiers, and corporate strategists at the event at the Hong Kong JW Marriott Hotel last week. Yatra.com has received a lot of prestigious awards and recognitions. It has been recognized as the ‘most used travel website’ by Juxt Consult in their India Online Survey 2008. It has also been declared to have the ‘best brand recall’ in the travel segment and the ‘most user friendly website’ according to the recent studies conducted by Juxt Consult and Phocus Wright, which are independent research organizations. Yatra.com has also been awarded for ‘Excellence’ in August-07 by TTF-OTM (India’s biggest travel show). About Red Herring Red Herring is a global media company, which unites the world’s best high technology innovators, venture investors and business decision makers in a variety of forums: a leading innovation magazine, an online daily technology news service, technology newsletters and major events for technology leaders around the globe. Red Herring provides an insider’s access to the global innovation economy, featuring unparalleled insights on the emerging technologies driving the economy. More information about Red Herring is available on the Internet at www.redherring.com.
Yatra.com wins the ‘Best Online Travel Agency’ Award for the Year 2008 By Galileo Express Travel World New Delhi, December 12, 2008 Yatra.com, one of India’s largest and leading online travel companies, has been declared the ‘Best Online Travel Agency’ of the year 2008 at the Galileo Express Travel World’s awards on December 10, 2008 in New Delhi. In line with the Galileo Express Travel World belief that excellence and responsibility must go hand in hand and that responsible action will not only ensure a better future but also good business prospects, the theme for the awards this year was climate change and responsible tourism. The Galileo Express Travel World Awards recognize the best in the industry every year. The winners are chosen through a transparent process which is certified by leading management consultants - Deloitte Touché Tohmatsu India Pvt. Ltd. These awards were first incorporated in 2003 with the objective of promoting professionalism and encouraging the travel & tourism industry to attain higher levels of performance. In their sixth edition now, the Galileo Express Travel World Awards continue to be endorsed by the Indian travel and tourism fraternity as the most credible industry awards and are considered the voice of the tourism industry.
TOTAL REVENUES Averaging revenues of Rs.100 crore a month and a volume of more than 6,500 air tickets and 300+ hotel room nights per day, its turnover currently stands at Rs 1,500 crore. The company is targeting total revenues of $220 million by the end of the fiscal 2009-10.
YATRA INVESTORS Reliance Venture Asset Management Ltd. Reliance Venture Asset Management Ltd is the corporate venture capital arm of the Reliance ADA Group. Since its inception in early 2006, the company has advised and / or invested in deals to the tune of over $4 billion. Stage, geographic and sector agnostic in its investment philosophy, Reliance Venture Asset Management has a global portfolio to its credit and has invested in promising companies such as India's largest online travel portal, Yatra.com, Suvidhaa Infoserve, Stoke Inc, Pelago Inc, Sequans Communications, E-Band Communications, Seedfund and two MITstartups, Dhama Innovations and Scalable Display Technologies. Some of the transactions they had advised the Reliance ADA Group on include the $300 million all-cash acquisition of San Francisco-based, Yipes Inc. by Reliance Communications, $82 million acquisition of UK-based, Vanco plc, and eWaveWorld, a $500 million initiative to bring 3G and 4G to 50 countries around the world by 2012. Headed by Mr. Harshal J. Shah, an MBA alumnus of Wharton School of Business, a Truman Gray Scholar with dual degrees from MIT, and an Andover Scholar from Phillips Academy in Andover, USA, the company comprises of professionals who bring over 50 years of cumulative experience and a solid academic base (MBAs - Ivy League, Technologists from premier Indian & International Universities & Chartered Accountants). The company was recently ranked 30th in the Red Herring Top 100 Global Venture Capital Firms in 2009 and was the only India based corporate VC company to feature in the ranking. For more information on the company, kindly log on to - www.relianceventure.com/
TV18 Group Television Eighteen (TV18) is India's premier business and consumer news broadcaster (CNBC TV18, CNN-IBN and Awaaz) and a leading media content provider and Internet player (running moneycontrol.com, commoditiescontrol.com and ibnlive.com). Besides that, it has, over the last decade, provided prime time
television content to almost all leading satellite channels in India including BBC, Star Plus, Sony Entertainment Television, Zee, MTV and Discovery. It is among the fastest growing media companies in India with a CAGR of almost 100% since its inception in 1993. Among TV18's promoters are Raghav Bahl, one of India's foremost television journalists and a brand in his own right, and Sanjay Ray Chaudhury - television's creative phenomenon and creator of The India Show (more popularly known as The Amul India Show). CNBC TV18 is India's leading business news channel. The channel is a joint venture between CNBC Asia-Pacific and Television Eighteen India Ltd. TV18 owns studios in New Delhi and Mumbai and has a news gathering network of over 200 journalists across the country. Turner International (Turner) and Global Broadcast News (GBN), a TV18 Group Company, also recently announced a partnership to launch a co-branded, 24-hour, English-language general news channel/service in India called CNN-IBN. TV18 has also launched India's first consumer channel, Awaaz, which is growing at a rapid pace and reaches out to India's huge consuming class. South Asia World is TV18's international channel. It is the first English Channel dedicated to South Asian viewers across the world. TV18 also owns and operates largest financial news and information portal www.moneycontrol.com
Norwest Venture Partners Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) is a global venture and growth equity investment firm that manages more than $3.7 billion in capital. It has offices in Palo Alto, California, Mumbai and Bangalore, India and Herzelia, Israel. NVP makes early to late stage venture and growth equity investments in U.S. and global companies across a wide range of sectors including: information technology, business services, financial services, infrastructure, technology enabled services and consumer. NVP has actively partnered with entrepreneurs to build great businesses for more than 48 years and has funded over 450 companies since inception. Notable investments include Actel Corporation, Airespace (acquired by Cisco Systems), Cerent (acquired by Cisco Systems), Corio (acquired by IBM), Cray Research, Documentum, Extreme Networks , Forte Software (acquired by Sun Microsystems), LifeSize Communications (acquired by Logitech), National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), Open-Silicon (acquired by Unicorn Investment Bank), PeopleSoft, Qumranet (acquired by Red Hat), Rackspace (NYSE:RAX), Siara Systems (acquired by Redback Networks), SideStep (acquired by Kayak), Spinnaker Networks (acquired by Network Appliance), Tivoli Systems (acquired by IBM), Transaction Systems Architects (Nasdaq: ACIW), Verio (acquired by NTT), Winphoria Networks (acquired by Motorola) and Yipes (acquired by Reliance/Flag Telecom). For more information, please visit www.nvp.com
Intel Capital Intel Capital, Intel's global investment organization makes equity investments in innovative technology start-ups and companies worldwide. Intel Capital invests in a broad range of companies offering hardware, software, and services targeting enterprise, home, mobility, health, consumer Internet, semiconductor manufacturing and cleantech. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested more than US$7.5 billion in approximately 1,000 companies in 45 countries. In that timeframe, 168 portfolio companies have gone public on various exchanges around the world and 212 were acquired or participated in a merger. Notable exits in India include Rediff, NIIT, Sasken Technlogies, Indiainfoline, Sharekhan and Nipuna. In 2007 Intel Capital invested about US$639 million in 166 deals with approximately 37 percent of funds invested outside the United States. For more information on Intel Capital and its differentiated advantages, visit www.intelcapital.com . YATRA INVESTORS
YATRA TODAY
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Over 100,000 page views per day
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Over 1 million registered users
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Over Rs.1,100 crore sales
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Over 600 employees
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Over 10 offices in 10 cities
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Voted as the most used website for Travel-Juxt Consult
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Top 100 start up’s in Asia-Red Herring
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Best Online Travel Agency08-Galileo Awards
FLASHBACK……..
MARKET SCENARIO 2006 •
Makemytrip, Cleartrip, Travelguru had a head start.
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People used travel sites to look up fares but booked on airline sites.
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Low cost airlines had made people getting used to booking online.
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IRCTC was fueling the same too.
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Skepticism about booking online-security of the transaction, credit card limits, credibility of the company.
TASK AT HAND •
Last to enter the market-how to make a dent.
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0 to 60-in no time
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Land grab
MARKETING PLAN •
CATEGORY STRATEGY: Do Print. Print works.
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YATRA.COM STRATEGY: Do TV.TV works better. Do Online. Online drives traffic.
ONLINE MARKETING PLAN •
SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING: to generate transactions. transactions. •
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GOOGLE AD WORDS
DISPLAY ADVERTISING: to add to the TV activity •
Yahoo!
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Rediff
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Sify
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MoneyControl
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IBNLive
EMAILERS
LEARNINGS
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SET OBJECTIVES
Define target audience •
Prioritize Markets •
Metros v/s Tier I,,II,III
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North India v/s South India
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South Delhi v/s East Delhi
Set Budgets •
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WHO is more important than HOW MANY
% of gross sales/net income(Rule of Income: 3 rd of net income)
Choose media basis •
Long Term-Brand Building
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Short Term-Lead Generation/Transactions
SET OUTCOMES
Short Term •
Number of visits to the site
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Number of calls to the call centre
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Number of walk-ins to the retail outlet
Long Term •
Market Share
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Mind Share
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Valet Share
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Word of-mouth share
UNDERSTANDING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR •
Plan online marketing keeping in mind that the new consumer has –
SCARCITY OF TIME
Ease of navigation-less clicks/hyperlinks…
Connectivity/download problems-less graphics
SCARCITY OF ATTENTION
Short,simple,easy to understand message
Say more in less
SCARCITY OF TRUST
Do not mislead, over promise, hide costs
Give what you SHOW
NET NET WHAT TO EXPECT FROM ONLINE: •
High on ROI: Pay for Performance
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Start-Stop at will
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Reach national as well as international markets
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Dynamic Customization
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Quick results-need more traffic immediately, SEM is way to go.
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Behavioral/Contextual/Geographical targeting
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Database collection
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Very measurable
WHAT LIES AHEAD………
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING •
Socialize on the web: Youtube,Flickr,Orkut,Facebook.Linkedin,Twitter
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Word of mouth
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Targeted
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Indefinite shelf life
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Time is the only cost
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Direct and immediate feedback
MARKETING ON MOBILES •
WAP sites
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SMS 2.0
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Right message at right place(point of sale)
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Location specific (GPS)-highly personalized advertising
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Mobile coupons
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Higher conversions
VIDEO ADS •
The NEW TV(especially on news and entertainment sites)
ADVANTAGES •
Click to play
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Captive Viewing
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High Click through
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Customize-overlays
EXECUTIVE MARKET DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
YATRA PROMISES
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Quick Refund Guarantee
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Instant Cancellation
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Best Fare Guarantee
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Secure Online Transactions
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Free Visa Assistance
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Partial Payment Facility
YATRA CHANNELS •
Yatra.com Web Portal
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Yatra.com Lounges
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Yatra.com Call Centre
YATRA COMPETITORS •
Makemytrip.com
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Cleartrip.com
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Travelguru.com
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Arzoo.com
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Ezeego.com
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Travelchacha.com
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Travelocity.com
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Meratrip.com
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Tripmela.com
CUSTOMER PROFILE
DEMOGRAPHIC TARGETING •
Professionally qualified between the age group: 18-45 years
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Male: Female- 80: 20
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Income Group: Sec A,B
PSYCHOGRAPHIC TARGETING •
Is married or planning
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Watches news channels: both English & Hindi
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Reads TOI,ET,MINT & INDIA TODAY
PROFILE TARGETING •
Access to Internet/Computer/Mobile
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English speaking, working in a MNC
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Active credit card user
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60% have traveled abroad
INDUSTRY POTENTIAL
DOMESTIC AIR TRAVELERS
RAILWAYS
Approx 3.4 lakh passengers/month Above 11 lakh are booked online
Approx 2.4 crore reserved tickets sold/month Out of this,approx. 90 lakh are booked online/
YATRA.COM PRODUCTS AND PROMOTIONS YATRA.COM & eBAY Yatra.com, the travel portal, launched travel auctions on eBay India, India, offering holiday packages. eBay customers will be able to bid for holiday packages starting at Rs. 1. This is first of its kind in India. Yatra.com forged a tie-up with eBay in January, 2010 to promote the products of Yatra.com on eBay India. As a part of this deal, Yatra.com is featured as the recommended travel website on eBay India’s homepage. In return, Yatra.com offers the customers of eBay India the option to search and book travel products – domestic and international flights and domestic hotels from www.ebay.in directly. eBay customers can book their travel through a dedicated travel page on eBay. in having special offers created by Yatra.com. In addition, eBay India provides dedicated display advertising inventory to Yatra.com on its homepage and other sections of the website. This is done by highlighting the top deals offered by Yatra.com with the help of banners across eBay India. With Yatra.com, you can book air tickets over the internet, through their 24×7 customer care centre, Yatra.com Holiday Lounges or by simply using your mobile phone. Yatra.com provides room-booking facility in over 2,500 domestic hotels across 250 destinations in India, as well as over 90,000 hotels across the world. Yatra.com also provides hundreds of holiday packages to its customers that include best deals and rates across the globe. YATRA BARCLAYCARD PLATINUM As a Yatra Barclaycard Platinum Cardholder there are no limits for you. You are now entitled to the exciting offers from yatra.com in addition to the many benefits offered by Visa. Our tie-ups with all major national and international carriers give you the freedom to take any flight that is convenient to you. And no matter who you fly with, you earn extra miles every time you fly. You can earn and redeem these extra miles, whether you fly or not, online on yatra.com.
CHAPTER 3
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA
FACTS
The above fact description shows the total number of visits made by visitors to various travel company’s site during April 2009 to April 2010.From the above facts, we can infer that TRAVEL site received the most number of visitors in both the years, and also the frequency has increased 1.5 times. This shows the fact that people are more aware of this site and that the company has been marketing its brand and services well enough to capture the interest of the people for long to make them visit their site more often in relation relation to other sites like MAKEMYTRIP or YATRA ONLINE.
YATRA being a late comer in this field managed to attract close to 1200 visitors in the year 2009 and around 2000 in the year 2010,which is quite convincing given that it has a strong competition from MAKEMYTRIP,which is a little ahead in terms of most visited site(1710 in 2009 and 2377 in 2010).
The above graph shows the growth of online travel agencies in India from 2007-2010.It is evident that online travel agencies have nearly quadrupled in growth in these years. In the year 2007, travel agencies were earning $477 which increased up to $790 in 2008, $1221 in 2009 and $1748 in 2010.This goes to show that Indian Online Travel Market has been growing at an incessant rate.
The above analytic graph shows the increasing and repetitive visits to the Yatra page since 2006 till 2009.In the year 2006, the total number of visits to Yatra.com was 2,928,891 which skyrocketed to 22,167,459 in 2008 and 38,080,015 in 2009.
The other travel companies in this regard include Makemytrip, Cleartrip, Travelguru and Ezeego.
The above graph shows the total number of page views to Yatra.com from 2006 to 2009.The page views in 2006 were 15,645,065 which grew to 193,345,501 in 2008 and fell down to 128,585,621 in the year 2009 due to emergence of other competitive brands in the market and their popularity and awareness.Yatra being a late entry into this field has come a long way and made a spot in the Indian Online Travel Market.Yatra has its main competition from Makemytrip,stil in some aspects Yatra has superseded the former since its inception.
Other travel companies in this regard include Makemytrip, Cleartrip.Travelguru and Ezeego.
The above graph depicts the strength of various travel companies or their brand power in the market. The brand power is a result of good marketing of services, awareness of the brand, customer following and the use of services by customers in the market. In the present scenario,Yatra is ruling the chart by having the strength of 4.49 as compared to other brands in the market.Makemytrip,which is a close competitor to Yatra is however having less brand power(2.81) than Yatra which goes to show that Yatra,since its inception has been proving its goodwill, quality of the services it provides and most importantly the rates of services it provides.
Other players in the online travel industry like Travelguru,Cleartrip and Ezeego have quite less brand power(2.09,1.15 and 0.91 respectively).
CHAPTER 4
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
FINDINGS •
The OTA segment in India is expected to grow by further 30-40% by the end of 2011 fiscal year.
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Yatra.com enjoys the 30% market share in the Indian Online Travel Industry after Makemytrip.com which has approx. 48% market share.
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The OTA channel in India has gone from being Niche to Mainstream, especially in the top eight to ten cities in India.
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A top OTA such as Makemytrip.com said it sells more than 12,000 flight tickets, 1,000 hotel nights and more than 100 holiday packages everyday. The site attracts more than 4.5 million unique visits every month.
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Tourism is the largest service industry in India, with a contribution of 6.23% to the national GDP and 8.78% of the total employment in India.
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The tourism industry in India generated about US $ 100 billion in 2008 and that is expected to increase to US $ 275.5 billion by 2018 at a 9.4% annual rate.
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Online travel industry is to be worth US $ 6 billion in 2010.
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The OTA (Online Travel Agency) business in India is currently expected to be approx. $ 800 million and depends largely on air-travel related transactions (2008).
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People are not aware about Yatra.com much as they know about Makemytrip.com.
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Revenuewise, Makemytrip.com was the market leader with $360 million in revenue in 07-08 followed by Cleartrip.com which had $ 200 million in revenue.Yatra.com was third with $ 150 million in revenue, with the other players sharing the rest of the pie.
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Most of the businessmen prefer to book their tickets or packages through their travel agents.
RESPONSIBILITIES •
Visiting the catchments areas.
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Identifying and approaching the prospects.
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Generating leads.
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Reporting leads/conversions
CONCLUSIONS •
Online Travel Industry is the fastest evolving service sector industry in India.
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The OTA segment in India is expected to grow by further 30-40% market share in the Indian Online Travel Industry.
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Yatra.com Online Private Limited is presently enjoying 30% market share in the Indian Online Travel Industry. Makemytrip.com is the market leader in the sector, enjoying almost 50% market share.
RECOMMENDATIONS •
Yatra.com should be more flexible in their policies if they want to capture the major chunk of corporate sector, they should come up with CREDIT FACILITY.
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It should focus more on their promotional activities so as to create awareness about the company among the masses.
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As it’s an online travel portal, so it should have more such tie-ups as they already have with Yahoo! And eBay.
QUESTIONNAIRE
Q.1 Are the people aware of the brand Yatra? a.)Yes b.)No Q.2 How would you rate the services provided by Yatra? a.)Satisfactory b.)Good c.)Worth the tour cost Q.3 Would you recommend Yatra to your your known one’s or relatives? a.)Yes b.)No Q.4 Have you traveled places through Yatra? a.)Yes b.)No Q.5 Is the whole procedure from booking till refund through Yatra convenient or does it need any changes? a.)Yes,the staff is friendly and pays attention to details. b.)No,the staff needs to be pay more attention to the needs of the customer.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Websites: •
Google.com
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Scribd.com
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Yatra.com
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Wikipedia.com
Journals/Magazines/Newspaper •
Dainik Jagran
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Amar Ujala
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Hindustan Times
