International online hotel booking portal Hotels.com has said that it is tripling its marketing spend in India this year, estimated to be about Rs 25 crore, for launching a slew of promotional initiatives.

“We have increased the marketing spend by almost three times this year compared to earlier,” the Hotels.com Asia-Pacific Marketing Director, Mr Abhiram Chowdhry, told PTI without disclosing the figures.

While he did not specify the exact amount of marketing spend in India, Mr Chowdhry said it would be in line with what Hotel.com’s parent Expedia.com plans.

Recently, Expedia.com had announced that it will spend Rs 25 crore in India this year on marketing and promotion to woo Indian travellers. As part of new marketing initiatives, Expedia has launched a new campaign — Big Daddy of Online travel — in the country.

“We are going to be very competitive (in marketing spends) like Expedia,” he said.

The company will soon launch multi-media advertising and promotional campaigns to promote its brand in India, with a focus on both conventional media and digital platforms, including social networking sites like Facebook.

“We have a Facebook page which can also be used by users for making hotel bookings. Similarly, we are about to launch mobile applications for iPhones and android phones to enable users to make bookings directly from handheld devices,” he added.

Commenting on the potential of the Indian market, Mr Chowdhry said it is among one of the fastest growing markets for the company in the Asia-Pacific region.

“In the next three to five years, India and China will be the biggest markets for Hotels.com in the Asia-Pacific. India is an investment market for us right now and all the earnings are currently being reinvested in the business here,” he said.

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