Critical Study of the Effectiveness of Yatra.com and Make my trip.com. as Tourism Website
Bivek Datta Asst.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. 163 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 like Malaysia 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 rapid rate. 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 164 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 these industries. 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 165 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. Agree 28% Di sagree 12% Strongl y Di sagree 12% Strongl y Agree 28% Neutral 20%
Q- Organization of information is clear on this web portal. 166 Agree 38% Disagree 16% Strongly Disagree 12% Strongly Agree 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.
Q-) Payment made are refunded easily in case of cancellation. A gr ee 34 % Di sag r ee 12% St r o ng l y Di sagr ee 12 % St r o ng l y A g r ee 24 % Neut r al 18 % 167 Agree 42% Disagree 12% Strongly Disagree 12% Strongly Agree 20% Neutral 14%
Q-) The services provided by this tourism website are excellent.
Agree 28% Di sagree 12% Strongl y Di sagree 12% Strongl y Agree 34% 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. Organization of information is clear on this website? 169 Agree 20% Di sagree 32% Strongl y Di sagree 20% Strongl y Agree 12% Neutral 16%
Q- Are the various functions (offers, booking, cancellation etc) well integrated on this web portal? Agree 16% Di sagree 32% Strongl y Di sagree 24% Strongl y Agree 14% Neutral 14%
Q- Travel bookings are cheaper on this tourism website. Agree 30% Di sagree 26% Strongl y Di sagree 12% Strongl y Agree 16% Neutral 16%
Q- Payment can be made with any banks debit/credit card without any issues?
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. 171 Agree 17% Disagree 26% Strongly Disagree 21% Strongly Agree 17% Neutral 19%
Q- Are customer executives always available ( 24*7) for solving queries?
CONCLUSI ON 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: 173 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 174 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.