MakeMyTrip seeks to take Indian travellers off the beaten path

MakeMyTrip India Ltd, India’s largest online travel and hotel-booking firm, is looking to follow an off-beat path to fuel growth.

The company, which got listed on the Nasdaq last week, plans to woo the middle-class consumer with mid-priced holiday packages to uncommon destinations, co-founder and chief operating officer Keyur Joshi told DNA.

The company’s primary focus will thus be on opening up unexplored destinations to Indian travellers. It will start charter flights in collaboration with low-cost carriers at mid-priced packages. It is tying up with hotels in bulk to bring down the cost of the packages.

“We are very focused for holidays within India and what we call as ‘Greater India’, which is destinations at 4-5 hours from India. That remains our primary focus, because the potential is just unimaginable. Not that we will not do Europe and Americas and Africa, but that will be secondary,” Joshi said.

MakeMyTrip is looking to make the Maldives, a premium destination, more affordable. It has lined up charter flights twice a week from Mumbai to Gan in the southern part of the islands-nation. The flights will commence October, in collaboration with Kingfisher Airlines. It also plans to add flights from Delhi to Male, capital of the Maldives.

Also from October, the company will do a weekly charter flights to from Bangalore to Port Blair in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

“Anything at 4-5 hours distance from India, we want to capture. We are looking at newer destinations and various options within Asian and Saarc countries,” Joshi said.

In May this year, MakeMyTrip had started charter flights with Kingfisher to Leh, which Joshi said had received an “overwhelming” response. The company is looking at making Bhutan and Phuket similarly accessible.

Joshi said compared to foreign travellers, Indians spent the most while on holiday, but still missed out on most exotic destinations. For example, the Maldives, which is an hour-and-a-half away from Bangalore by flight, receives only 3% of Indian tourists. Those from Europe, meanwhile, make up almost 80% of visitors.

The company is looking at offering packages along with the Maldivian Tourism Board starting Rs30, 000 per person for three nights.