MakeMyTrip to focus on hotel and package tour

Sees tougher times in revenue from airline bookings, seeks to ramp up revenue share of package tours to 50% from 30% currently

Online travel ticket service provider MakeMyTrip is planning to shift its focus from online ticket servicing to holiday and package tour segment. The company which currently gets 30 per cent of its revenue from hotel and package tour business intends to grow the share to around 50 per cent within couple of years.

“With the internet boom, online air ticketing is getting highly commoditised and many airlines want to cut commissions. In the long term, the economic scenario in airfares will get tougher,” said Deep Kalra, founder and CEO, MakeMyTrip.

He also said, “When we launched the IPO in 2010 revenue contribution from our air ticket business was around 90 per cent and today the same has come down to 70 per cent. It is a conscious effort, we are focusing on hotel and packages quite a bit.”

The company also believes that South East Asia offers a huge opportunity in the hotels and package tour business. It also said that only 5 per cent of the hotel industry in the country has adopted the online way for business and this offers tremendous opportunity in the segment.

The Nasdaq-listed company which raised around $80 million through its IPO in 2010 has already made two acquisition in the hotel and package tour segment.

Early in this month the company acquired hotel room aggregator hoteltravel.com for $25 mn focusing on Southeast Asia. In 2011 MakeMyTrip had acquired Singapore-based Luxury Tours and Travels for around $3 million.

“With access to hoteltravel.com inventory we will be able to expand the range of best-value hotel offerings available to Indian customers in the South East Asian region and will help to build a stronger presence in the region,” Kalra added.