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The latest usage-cum-brand tracking study conducted by JuxtConsult for the ‘online travel' category indicates that:
- Every second regular Internet user in India has booked a travel ticket online.
- The online travel category has seen a 60% growth in usage in last 1 year.
The online survey was conducted by JuxtConsult in November 2006, among a sample base of over 2,000 internet users. Such surveys are conducted by JuxtConsult on a regular basis as part of its syndicated brand tracking reports BrandMomentux TM that measures the current and future readiness of brands which are either consumer products or fall in the service category.
Top Findings: Online Travel Usage
- 63% of all regular internet users are online travel users currently
- 60% new users have joined the online travel category in the last 1 year
- 54% of these regular internet users have already booked a travel product online at least once
- Almost all online travel bookers have booked a train or an air ticket (97%)
- More of them have booked air tickets online (76%) than train tickets (47%)
- Over half the bookers still come from the metro cities (54%)
- Over half of the bookers (54%) still do not own or use a credit card for transacting online
Top Findings: Brand-wise
- Makemytrip.com dominates the top of mind category brand recall. IRCTC and Yatra follow as the significant second and third in terms of mindshare
- There were 21.4 million ‘regular' Internet users who used internet at least once a month in May 2006 – Source: JuxtConsult India Online 2006.
- However, IRCTC leads the category in terms of primary consumer share at 32%. Makemytrip.com follows as second with 24% primary consumer share.
- Makemytrip.com shows the best brand momentum (or future market readiness), followed closely by IRCTC
- While Makemytrip.com is an ‘accelerating' brand (with relatively high brand persuasion, pull and loyalty), IRCTC is a ‘decelerating' brand (despite high brand persuasion it is slowed down by low consumer pull and moderate levels of loyalty)
Some other findings
- Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai are the top five most traveled to cities in India among online travel users.
- Saudi Arabia, US, UK, Australia and Singapore are the top five most traveled to countries among Indian online travel users.
- Air tickets have become the most bought travel product online. 76% online travel users have bought an air ticket while 47% have purchased a train ticket.
- While Makemytrip.com has the most top of mind brand recall at 30%, Irctc.co.in follows with 19%, and Travelguru has 9% brand recall.
In a nutshell, it is clear that the online travel sector is seeing robust growth and sale of air tickets has already surpassed that of train tickets, contrary to popular perception. With the rise of the travel portals, the online travel sector is poised to see tremendous growth in the forthcoming quarters.
Given the current brand momentum, Makemytrip.com is likely to gain primary consumer share further (by 4%), and IRCTC and Yatra are likely to lose some share (by 5% and 2% respectively). Other than that, the online travel market is not expected to show any major changes in terms of brand shares given the current consumer preferences.
Primary consumer share of a website is calculated on its usage as the ‘most preferred' one.
BrandMomentux is a calculated index of a brand's ‘current mass' (current primary consumer share of the brand) multiplied by its ‘speed accelerators' (arithmetic mean of mind-share factors like brand persuasion, brand pull and brand loyalty). |
