Online channels accounted for 39 per cent of travel bookings in 2014: Phocuswright

MUMBAI: Online travel bookings continue to witness double-digit growth despite low internet and credit card penetration, says a report by travel market research firm Phocuswright. According to the report, online channels accounted for nearly 39 per cent of the travel bookings in India in 2014, putting the country just a few percentage points behind the most mature online travel markets like the US and Europe.

While air and rail have long buoyed India's online penetration rates, hotel bookings too are catching up. Online hotel bookings grew 32 per cent to US$800 million in 2014 due to an overall healthy hotel market combined with the online travel agencies' ( OTA) efforts to bring fragmented hotel content onto their platforms. Hotels' shift to online channels will continue at a similar pace, pushing online penetration in the segment to 27 per cent by 2017.
OTAs are also heavily investing in mobile medium with better product experience to pursue a growing user base. Mobile accounted for nearly one in five OTA gross booking dollars in 2014. India's total mobile bookings (OTAs and suppliers combined) are projected to hit $3.2 billion by 2017, with OTAs accounting for the vast majority.