Published: 16 Oct 2007

Dhruv Shringi, Co founder, Yatra.com, expects the market to grow to over US$2 billion by 2008 and continue to grow at over 20 percent until 2010.

In its first year of its establishment, Yatra.com has become the second largest travel company with current employee strength of over 400. Currently its a US$49 million company and plans to earn US$120 million by the end of calendar year 2007, says Shringi, who intends to make Yatra the number one player in the online travel space. The company is posting revenues of $10 mil per month and books 4,500 tickets per day and 250 room nights.

"Currently portals earn maximum revenue from flight tickets and generate only 20 percent revenue from the booking of packages online and car rentals," he told EyeforTravel.com's Ritesh Gupta.

Shringi acknowledges that the online travel industry has also seen a graphic rise, there is a shift in the Indian mindset and they are exploring their option for the best deal apart from the traditional choice, owing such developments to the LCCs bringing in a boom to the aviation industry.

On the battle going forward as traditional offline consolidators particularly air consolidators enter the online space, he said, "The travel portal industry is at a nascent stage but is definitely growing. Online booking not only provides you with discounted prices but also the comfort of booking from your own house, anytime and anywhere. It is also more transparent compared to the traditional distribution channels like the travel agents. Customers can easily view the real time prices and pick and chose the best options and packages that suit their requirement."

"I understand that the online booking is always synonymous with the Internet. There are some 40 million Internet users and a lesser amount of people who has broadband connections. For that matter, though there are some 17 million card users in the country, the credit card users is very low – some 10 million only," he said. "Online medium is more transparent as compared to other travel services. Customers can easily view the real time prices and pick and chose the best options and packages that suit their requirement. Also, the procedure to book a ticket through tour operator is relatively long than online booking."

Recently Yatra has also entered into strategic tie-up with Reliance Web World, Hughes Communications, Big Bazaar, ITZ Cash counters to provide offline services to the customers.