_3_final-marketing tour & travels

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4D INTERNATIONAL JOURNALOF MANAGEMENT AND [email protected]

www.4dinternationaljournal.comVolume-4,Issue-1-2013

Critical Study of the Effectiveness of Yatra.com and Make my trip.com. as TourismWebsite

Bivek DattaAsst.Professor,Amity University

ABSTRACT

This research paper is a study and analysis of the effectiveness of travel websites. With

reference toYatra.com and MakeMyTrip.com . the effectiveness of E-commerce with

respect to the travel industry in particular. An attempt has been made to study the current

status of online marketing globally as well in India. In India E-commerce is being driven

by the growing online travel industry and online travel bookings have increased

substantially after the entry of low cost carriers.A comparative analysis of these is drawn

to decipher the market leader. Primary Research has been conducted to estimate the

consumer satisfaction from the online portals. Various parameters linked to the services

provided by these portals have been included in the research, for instance the allied

services offered like Passport & visa, Travel & accommodation information and some of

the portals out shine the others in terms of customer satisfaction.

(KEY WORDS:-online marketing,low cost carrier,customer satisfaction)

INTRODUCTION

The tourism industry is now one of the largest sectors earning foreign exchange. In the

face of many benefits, many countries have started assigning due weight age to the

tourism industry in their national development agenda.

Tourism is one of the world's fastest growing industries at present and holds the status of

the world's no. 1 industry.

Spending on tourism amounts to 5%-10% of total consumer, spending in a year

worldwide.


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The industry creates a job every 2.4 seconds with every one of those direct jobs creating

another 11 indirect ones.

The tourism industry as a whole is presently estimated to earn over US$ 3.5 trillion

worldwide.

India's share of the total market is a pittance at 0.51%. The non-tourist countries likeMalaysia and Indonesia get much more tourists than India.

India's share of the total market is a pittance at 0.51%. The non-tourist countries like

Malaysia and Indonesia get much more tourists than India.

The Tourism industry's foreign exchange earnings in India are around $3.2 billion.

Tourism is the highest foreign exchange earner if we consider the fact that net value

addition in Gems and jewellery is less than 30 % whereas, in tourism it is more than 90 %.

.Use of the Internet by travelers to plan and book their trips continues to grow at a rapidrate. In the United States, according to the Travel Industry Association (TIA 2007), more

than 75 million online travelers used the Internet in 2006 to get information on

destinations or to check prices and schedules , while growth of the online traveler market

has slowed, the number of online travelers who actually use the Internet to plan trips has

remained relatively stable. A majority (67%) of online travelers say they consult the

Internet to get information on destinations or to check prices or schedules. Not

surprisingly, nearly all online travel planners say that some of the trips planned on the

Internet in the past year were for pleasure, vacation, or personal purposes. Three in ten

say some of the trips planned on the Internet were for business or convention purposes.

For online travel planning, online travel agency websites (such as Microsoft Expedia,

Travelocity, YATRA.COM, and MAKEMYTRIP.COM ETC), search engine websites,

and company owned websites (airlines, hotels, etc.) are the most popular types of

websites used. A majority of online travel planners also use destination websites

Tourism 2020 Vision is the World Tourism Organizations long-term forecast and

assessment of the development of tourism up to the first 20 years of the new millennium.

An essential outcome of the Tourism 2020 Vision is quantitative forecasts covering a 25

years period, with 1995 as base year and forecasts for 2010 and 2020. Although the

evolution of tourism in the last few years has been irregular, UNWTO maintains its long

term forecast for the moment. The underlying structural trends of the forecast are


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believed not to have significantly changed. Experience shows that in the short-term,

periods of faster growth (1995, 1996, and 2000) alternate with periods of slow growth

(2001 to 2003).

LITERATURE REVIEW

Technology-driven change is revolutionizing every industry, from retail distribution to

banking, from manufacturing to publishing and education. The pressure of new

technologies (computer, networks, and interactive television) combined with increasing

customer demands (flexibility, convenience, customization, service, etc.) and hyper-

competition (global markets, shrinking product cycles, increasing risk, rapid change) is

requiring companies to redefine their strategies, products and processes. Electronic

commerce is supported by one specific set of technologies (intelligent front: ends, public

networks such as the Internet and multimedia data) which has an impact on theseindustries. For the first time, buyers and sellers can communicate directly over an

information and data-rich channel. Consumer oriented industries where service and

information plays a large part in the buying process are especially affected: banking,

travel and retail of commodity products (records, wine, and books) would be good

examples.

The World Wide Web has changed the business environment and competitive behavior in

many industries because consumers now have more access to market information. The

speed at which the Internet has revolutionized information availability and information

sharing has taken managers by surprise. While many firms have failed in their effort to

implement sound Internet strategies in an environment where consumers are better

informed, other firms with creative strategies have succeeded.

The Internet has become an important information source for end consumers in many

industries. It has brought higher levels of market transparency, permitting consumers to

observe information that previously was not available via other distribution channels.

Market transparency can be observed in the travel industry, where the influence of

information provided by online travel agencies (OTAs) has been significant. According

to the Travel Industry Association of America (2002), two-thirds of the 96 million people

who traveled and used the Internet in 2002 planned and researched travel options online.

This led to new revenue dollars for online purchases, and shifted the mix away from


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offline purchases. Nielsen Net Ratings (2001) reported that online travel sales approached

US$ 1.2 billion in the United States market in January 2001, representing nearly a third

of all e-commerce transactions. In addition, visits to online travel sites stimulated

another $681 million in revenue related to purchases by phone, fax, or in person.

OBJECTIVES:To evaluate the consumer perception about various travel portals in India.

To study and analyze the existing problems about the application of tourism research in

information technology and list the future possibility of development.

To study the marketing strategies of tourism websites.

To study the effectiveness of tourism websites i.e.Yatra.com, MakeMyTrip.com.

Research Methodology:Based on both Primary and Secondary data. Primary data collected

by interviewing selected no of respondents through structured questionnaires .While

secondary data was collected from authentic books and trusted Websites.

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

Q. It is easy to register on this web portal.

Agr ee

28%

Disagree

12%

Strongly

Disagree

12%

Strongly Agree

28%

Neutral

20%

Q- Organization of information is clear on this web portal.


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Agr ee

38%

Disagree

16%

trongly

isagree

12%

Strongly

Agr ee

20%

Neutral

14%

Q- Are the various functions (offers, booking, cancellation etc) well integrated on thisweb

portal?

Q) Travel bookings are cheaper on this tourism website.

Agree34%

Disagree

14%

Strongly

Disagree

12%

Strongly Agree

24%

Neutral

16%

Q-) Payment made are refunded easily in case of cancellation.

A g r ee

3 4 %

Disagree

12%

St rong ly

Disagree

12%

St rong l y

A g r ee

2 4 %

Neutra l

18%


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Agree

42%

Disagree

12%

Strongly

Disagree

12%

Strongly Agree

20%

Neutral

14%

Q-) The services provided by this tourism website are excellent.

Agree

28%

Disagree

12%

Strongly

Disagree

12%

Strongly Agree34%

Neutral

14%

Q-) On time availability of mode of travel (Train/Flight) is better on this web portal.

Agree

34%Disagree

14%

Strongly

Disagree

12%

Strongly Agree

20%

Neutral

20%

Q-Are customer executives always available ( 24*7) for solving queries?


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Agree

34%

Disagree

12%

Strongly

Disagree

20%

Strongly Agree

14%

Neutral

20%

Q-) Offers launched on occasions provide better package than other web portals.

Agr ee

34%

Disagree

14%

Strongly

Disagree

12%

Strongly Agree

26%

Neutral14%

(For users using MakeMyTrip)

Q- It is easy to register on this web portal.

Agree

26%

Disagree

32%

Strongly

Disagree

18%

Strongly Agree

12%

Neutral

12%

Q. Organization of information is clear on this website?


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Agree

20%

Disagree

32%

Strongly

Disagree

20%

Strongly Agree

12%

Neutral

16%

Q- Are the various functions (offers, booking, cancellation etc) well integrated on thisweb portal?

Agr ee

16%

Disagree

32%

Strongly

Disagree

24%

Strongly Agree

14%

Neutral

14%

Q- Travel bookings are cheaper on this tourism website.

Agr ee

30%

Disagree

26%

Strongly

Disagree

12%

Strongly Agree

16%

Neutral

16%

Q- Payment can be made with any banks debit/credit card without any issues?


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Agree

28%

Disagree

20%

Strongly

Disagree

12%

Strongly Agree

20%

Neutral

20%

Q- The services provided by this tourism website are excellent.

Agree

24%

Disagree

38%

Strongly

Disagree

12%

Strongly Agree

14%

Neutral

12%

Q- On time availability of mode of travel (Train/Flight) is better on this web portal.

Agree

26%

Disagree

24%

Strongly

Disagree

24%

Strongly Agree

12%

Neutral

14%

Q- Any kind of additional services like car, hotel services is better on this web portal.


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Agr ee

17%

Disagree

26%

Strongly

Disagree

21%

Strongly Agree

17%

Neutral

19%

Q- Are customer executives always available ( 24*7) for solving queries?

Agree

24%

Disagree

20%

Strongly

Disagree

16%

Strongly Agree

24%

Neutral

16%

Q- Do the executives follow up in case they are not able to answer any query?

Agr ee

14%

Disagree

24%Strongly

Disagree

28%

Strongly Agree

12%

Neutral

22%

Q- Regular festive offers launched are better on this web portal.


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Agr ee

22%Disagree

28%

Strongly

Disagree

12%

Strongly Agree

26%

Neutral

12%

Q- Offers launched on occasions provide better package than other web portals.

Agre e

34%

Disagree

28%

Strongly

Disagree

14%

Strongly Agree

12%

Neutral

12%

CONCLUSION

Due to the recent nature of this phenomenon there was unavailability of secondary data in

the Indian industry, thus primary research was relied upon. The analysis and understanding

derived from selected companies were used to generalize for the industry as a whole. This

report should help in understanding how the market structure is predicted to change in the

Indian travel industry. It was noticed that the use of both the travel websites by their

potential customers were under tough competition. In order to have more clear

understanding of the study a survey was done with total forty four people out of equally

were divided among the two website users. As per the results of this survey it was noticed

that majority of customers were satisfied with the travel portals and out of which they found

Yatra.com to be more continent and better option when compared to MakeMyTrip.com. As

per the customers experience and knowledge they shared out many reasons for giving such

preference to yatra.com. Following are few reasons for their preference listed down by the

experienced users of both the travel portals:


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The information on Yatra portal is much more clear and adequate than MakeMy Trip.

The price variation of both the portals as per the services offered.

The services offered by Yatra are better than MakeMyTrip.

The Yatra portal exclusive work more efficiently when it comes to the customer benefits

and offers.

Also a full exploitation of the potential for market transparency will only fuel the further

growth of the market for travel services through their portals. At the same time the impact of

market transparency on prices is that the prices are driven lower leading to a price war

between the travel agents, as the consumers are able to discover and purchase the lowest

available fares. Moreover, an increase in market transparency is associated with a decrease

in the costs of information search and, consequently, it also tends to increase consumers

willingness-to-pay.The frameworks outlined in this project should be helpful to support

decision-making processes while shaping strategies to react or take opportunity of the fast

changing world of the travel industry. Moreover, the strategies adopted by the travel agents

are not just based on their willingness to do so but are also constrained by their analysis of

resources and capabilities and amounts of investments required. During all these

developments the size of the consumer base has increased as the low prices, better services

attract more travelers to this industry completing the entire cycle of events. Thus,

Concluding it was clearly identified through this study of two web portals that both Yatra

and make my trip are very tough competitors of each other. Both the websites are having

equivalent benefits for their customers in order to satisfy them. But still under this project

we have gone through the in depth study of both the websites and found that Yatra.com is

more efficiently capable to satisfy its customers when compared to MakeMyTrip.com.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

WEBSITES REFERRED:

www.google.com

www.yatra.com

www.makemytrip.com

www.wikipedia.com

www.tourism.gov.in


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www.Hotelmarketing.com

www.m-travel.com

BOOKS REFERRED:

Yatra Journals and various Marketing Books.

Industry presentations for the Internet Marketing E-Commerce & Competence Capabilities and Competitive

Strategies

Magazines such as Outlook Traveler, Travelers India, etc.

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