Simply click, but no fly!

Though many travel portals have mushroomed of late, the common traveller still seems sceptical of their benefits.

Over the past ten years, there has been a huge spurt among Indian audience to travel, both within the country and abroad. It is estimated that by 2010, outbound tourism in India will touch a substantial 15 million. With the advent of budget airlines, and the birth of travel portals, the Indian audience now has several options available in terms of making their travel plans, and booking tickets as well as hotels, not just within the country but abroad too.
Unlike in the olden days, where one needed to work out travel plans well in advance to visit any place, either domestic or international, today, that gap has been minimized and a quick holiday can be planned much easily thanks to several new travel portals which are offering great services under one roof. Travel portals have been spending a lot to create awareness of their portal and are trying various means to woo customers by offering attractive packages to get people book online. Even the offline travel operators have doubled their budgets with high decibel advertising.
Unfortunately, though, the campaigns run by both the offline and online brands have become rather confusing as each is offering similar deals and their campaigns too look and feel similar. However, there are serious doubts and questions one needs to answer on online bookings. How many people are really going online to make their travel booking? Though no accurate statistics are yet available on this, one of the main contentions for people not booking their tickets or making their holiday plans online is due to the fear of their credit card details leaking out.

Online booking may not favour first time travellers:

Most family households invariably make their travel decisions jointly, instead of individually. And, since it is usually while dining in the night that they come together, or over the weekends, that such a decision is taken then and there and is unanimous. Typically, the first-time visitor is a bit more cautious. He or she seeks more knowledge from either friends or a neighbourhood travel shop before deciding the travel operator. After deciding on the destination, the next step is to thoroughly study the pamphlets and information available on the net before closing the deal.
The first choice of the first-time traveller would be to visit a travel company and get all documentation done with them. Since the traveller is visiting a new country, or place, the person would need some kind of reassurance from the travel operator in India, which is not possible when one opts for online booking. Here, the traveller interacts with the sales personnel on phone and at the travel desk of the company and gets all his doubts cleared.
Also, with the first time traveller, caution is the buzzword. The traveller doesn’t want his plans go awry on his maiden journey and hopes that the trip be a very memorable one. This is one of the reasons there are travel brands that offer both online, and offline services so that they do not lose customers either way.

Barriers to Online travel booking: Although reports suggest that the sale of computers and laptops have gone up, their penetration is, as yet, not so much that it spawns an entire online industry. And, one of the major reasons for this is the poor bandwidth that is currently offered and the poor power situation in most parts of the country. Such glitches have kept the use of the Net for making travel plans online low, especially when you need long hours on the computer to understand the offers and get the best deals.
Security, too, is a major concern. Although one does get proof and documents on online booking, but, since the personal touch is missing, customers are reluctant to provide their credit card details online as plastic monies are being misused across the world.
In the case of offline booking, one can always fall back on the travel operator, who can guide a traveller through the ways and means of the nitty-gritty concerned with travel bookings, as well as act as an escort in the foreign land. One may, however, not get such a service when you book your travel itinerary online.
Also, most people in smaller towns prefer to interact with a live person rather than a faceless computer. It serves best to remember that these very people prefer the post man delivering letters to their homes, or visiting a local bank instead of using the Net to do their banking transactions or emailing their family and friends. Travel portals need to have a closer look at the demerits of online booking and find better solutions in educating the customers on the same.
So, what do travel portals need to do to increase online booking? The future (of travel portals) seems quite bright and, according to industry estimates, the online travel industry is pegged around Rs5000-crs. At present, online booking is more utilized towards domestic travel bookings on budget airlines and for local hotel bookings. The need is to create a strong educational campaign for travellers to log in for outbound tours.
Net banking, which is getting popular, has made some inroads. But people still prefer to go to the bank and get their passbook updated and have a cup of coffee with the bank staff. This is especially true of small towns. To increase online usage, many banks are wooing customers through various promotional schemes to increase usage of the Net for banking.
A deep sense of insecurity, though, continues to prevail in the minds of consumers so far as using the Net to make travel plans is concerned. This mindset has to be corrected, though this will be slow and a long-drawn process. However, with concerted efforts from various travel portals, the confidence of booking online should go up in the near future. Travel companies must explore new methods to popularise online booking. More innovation and fresh ideas should be infused to drive the concept, which is still a bit alien today.
- A joint promotional campaign educating the potential users on online booking.
- Talk to the customer once the booking is done. A customer service executive should call up and instil confidence in the customer.
- The opening page of the web could talk about the security aspect of online booking, by reiterating the safety guarantee.
- Conduct seminars and road shows to drive the concept and use high footfall areas to demonstrate the usage.
- On the website itself, one can look at infomercials in a very interesting manner to address the concerns of the traveller. Remember that the infomercials has to be demonstrative.

Published in USP Age August 2007 issue.