MakeMyTrip to launch Arabic site in New Year

DUBAI: Gurgaon-based travel portal MakeMyTrip will launch on Arabic website early next month.

“We are catering to the local population in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region for inter-region travel to countries for local travel as well as to the UK, parts of Europe, Turkey, Malaysia, etc,“ said Keyur Joshi, co-founder and chief operating officer at MakeMyTrip.

The Nasdaq-listed company will first target Saudi Arabia where the online travel market is estimated at $900 million, or about Rs 5,740 crore, for 2014.

A majority of its Arabic language operations will be supported out of India and Phuket in Thailand (through its hotel booking entity HotelTravel.com). “Our operation will be supported out of our UAE office as well,“ Joshi said.

Out of the 15.6 million internet users in the region, close to 3.9 million purchase holidays online.

“The region has specific requirements to accommodate larger families; they are looking for dry hotels and more,“ Joshi said. “This will be a good brand extension for us and going forward we could look at creating content for more regional languages in India as well,“ he said.

MakeMyTrip will cater to short and long-haul leisure travellers as well as corporate travellers.