Cleartrip grows 3-4 times faster than travel industry, plans new verticals

Flipkart-owned Cleartrip is growing three to four times faster than the travel industry in 2025 and plans to add new business lines, including hotels, trains and buses, to expand its reach

E-commerce firm Flipkart’s online travel company Cleartrip has outperformed travel industry’s growth by three to four times so far in 2025, as it plans to add multiple business lines in the coming quarters to strengthen its position in the market, according to a senior executive of the company.

 

The industry is currently growing at mid-single so far in 2025.

 

Manjari Singhal, chief growth and business officer, Cleartrip, told Business Standard that the company plans to sustain a similar growth momentum in the coming years, with its margins growing in line with its overall growth.

 

“Our focus is to increase the multiple from three to four times, and there are huge plans in place to grow our air and hotel business segments. In the next quarters, we are looking to add multiple business lines to help us strengthen our position as an OTA (online travel agency),” said Singhal.

 

She added that these new business lines could be added to the company’s existing revenue streams or create a separate vertical within the company. While she did not disclose the investment plan for these initiatives, these plans are in place to unlock segments like international hotels, trains and bus bookings and to bring in AI (artificial intelligence) to help customers in trip planning.

 

“Trip planning has moved from just booking flights and hotels to extracting the best experience, and we are well-positioned to deliver that,” Singhal explained.

 

Currently, leisure travellers driven by Gen Z and spiritual travel by millennials are the major travel segments contributing towards Cleartrip’s revenue. Additionally, this festival season, Cleartrip is launching visa denial cover for its travellers. Through this, travellers can claim their ticket value back from the company if their visa gets rejected at no incremental cost.

 

Meanwhile, Gaurav Patwari, vice-president, air category, said that the company’s hotel segment is growing disproportionately at an unprecedented rate compared to other segments like air travel.

 

“Last year, we had exclusive deals on more than 14,000 hotels. This year, we are expecting somewhere around 30,000 properties to participate with us (for the festival season),” said Akhil Malik, head of hotels, Cleartrip.

 

“We are going deep with regard to our supplier relationship. We have also invested a lot in building supplier relationships, and triple-digit year-on-year growth on the demand side has helped us pass additional benefits to the customer.”

 

Recently, through Flipkart’s partnership with Marriott International to launch a dual-loyalty programme in India, it is expected to further expand its presence in the country’s travel industry.

 

From the overall bookings in India, Cleartrip has seen a shift of about 10 per cent demand coming from Tier-II and -III cities post-Covid, Patwari noted.

 

“India will see about 220 to 250 aircraft coming in every year starting in 2026, which means double-digit capacity addition. Within India's growth story, the travel (industry) is going to perform, and we are extremely optimistic not just for the next year, but for the next 10 to 15 years,” Patwari added.