In a move to woo travellers back, MakeMyTrip has launched a slew of measures such as a dedicated platform for travel agents, as it sees green shoots in demand.

The Nasdaq-listed company, like its peers in the travel and hospitality industry, is facing the brunt of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has severely dented its business. “ Travel activity is now around 25-30 per cent and we expect it to double to 60 per cent, which will be good from where we stand now,” Vipul Prakash, Chief Operating Officer, MakeMyTrip, told BusinessLine . This is on the assumption that the vaccine comes out quickly, he added.

MakeMyTrip is trying to get travel agents on its platform and is giving them access to its database of 77,000 hotels, 1 lakh alternative accommodations and 5 lakh properties globally. By doing this, the company is opening up access to agents anywhere in the world. “Earlier, an agent in Madurai, would have to make calls or use the general MakeMyTrip website to do hotel bookings in Meghalaya. Now, the agents have the inventory in front of them,” said Prakash. There are no subscription fee and it is a three-step sign up process for travel agents.

The logic seems to be that agents have a selective customer base, understand customers’ needs and if anything were to go wrong, the agent will resolve the matter. Currently, 20 per cent of all room nights booked in India are by travel agents.

Additionally, in an effort to win customer confidence, MakeMyTrip has put up detailed videos of all the stay places.

Since 2016, the travel industry has faced severe stress, right from demonetisation in November 2016 followed by the GST roll out in 2017, with high GST payout of 9 per cent charged on tour packages, which was subsequently reduced to 5 per cent. The third punch came from Covid-19.

Pent-up demand

However, Prakash and others are of the view that travel is inherent to human nature and once things begin to normalise, there will be a surge in pent-up demand. In the unlock phase, MakeMyTrip is seeing a 40 percentage points increase in hotel-bookings in the 200 km radius. Pre-Covid, the bookings were 30 per cent and now it is 70 per cent, said Prakash.

MakeMyTrip has also introduced 100 per cent refunds, and has initiated refunds of close to ₹250 crore to its customers on bookings that were affected as a result of the lockdown.

Meanwhile, European travel company Lastminute.com entered the Indian market in July by acquiring iTraveller.com, a Bengaluru-based online travel discovery and booking start-up.

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