 "Dhruv Shringi, Whole Time Director & Chief Executive Officer, Yatra Online Limited")
Travel platform Yatra Online, which made its debut on the bourses on September 28, reported a 24 per cent surge in revenue at Rs 110.17 crore in Q1FY24. Whole-Time Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dhruv Shringi tells Akshara Srivastava, in a video interview, about its plans of driving revenue and the travel boom in the country. Edited excerpts:
What do you think is causing the current travel boom in the country?
There is good growth coming in from new airports being opened, which allows us to look at newer markets. The overall demand sentiment is very strong right now. Despite the shortfall in inbound travel, hotel occupancy levels have remained fairly elevated because of domestic demand. We also had the benefit of G20, and now the Cricket World Cup. With rising disposable incomes, consumption patterns of travellers are also changing. It’s no longer a case of one large holiday. People now undertake multiple short breaks. A lot of unbundling is also happening in international travel, where people are no longer taking large group holidays, but are looking to have a unique experience. We saw revenge travel after the pandemic and that has become the new norm.
How soon do you see airfares stabilising?
A lot is happening. We have this new ongoing conflict in West Asia and then there’s oil which is putting pressure on the bottom line for airlines, Indigo has already introduced a surcharge and others will follow suit. I think airfares will go up in the range of mid to high single digits. Internationally, while short-haul fares may remain broadly stable, long-haul fares will start rationalising once more capacity starts coming in. We expect to see price escalation during the winter peak.
What was the biggest driver of revenue in the past quarter?
If you look at our overall revenue break up, air was the key driver in terms of growth. We saw a 46 per cent growth in our air bookings business. Hotel bookings, however, were broadly flat. This was because of a significant volume drop of one of our affiliate partners. The segment grew close to 20 per cent. So, from an aviation industry point of view, it’s a pretty good situation to be in. Obviously, as a leader in the corporate travel space, we continue to grow at a much faster pace than the market itself.
What are your business growth expectations for this year?
The industry is growing at a rate of 9 to 12 per cent, and we want to grow at 2x of the market in both air and hotel bookings. That’s what we did between 2016 and 2019, until Covid happened. And, I think we are back on that trajectory now. In fact, we expect hotels to grow maybe slightly faster than air. On a blended basis, we expect to grow at 20 per cent. If we break it down, that may be in the high teens for air and early 20s for hotels. The next growth lever for us in hotels will come from the corporate front. It’s a great opportunity for us to be able to accelerate growth as more people in the country are travelling now.
You have signed on 20 new corporate clients, with Welspun World as the latest one. How do you plan to grow this business?
Corporate is our key focus area. From a baseline point of view, we’ve reached 813 corporate customers. We would look at adding between 80 and 100 new customers, on an annualised basis.
How is the turmoil in the aviation sector impacting air travel demand?
Luckily, in India, key players are still adding capacity. Air India is adding capacity as quickly as it can and so is Akasa. The industry has enough and more supply is coming in on a regular basis in both domestic and short-haul international sectors. But supply is still constrained in the long-haul international market. It will only ease once Air India starts getting more deliveries of the Airbus 350s.
