india corporate travel news

Why Indian OTAs Are Now Looking Towards Corporate Travel

Bulbul Dhawan , Skift

April 12th, 2024 at 8:47 AM EDT

India is a strong source market for business travel. To cater to this robust market, online travel companies in India are diversifying their offerings.

Bulbul Dhawan

The Skift India Newsletter is your go-to platform for all news related to travel, tourism, airlines, and hospitality in India.

Corporate travel in India is booming – spending surged nearly 25% in 2023. And online travel companies are ramping up their efforts to profit from it.  

Dubai-based business travel platform Tumodo announced the launch of its India services this week. Tumodo said it expects an 18% surge in the India market this year.

India accounts for almost 6% of business travel in Central Asia and the Pacific, the travel startup said, adding that the India market is expected to fully recover its pre-Covid business travel expenses by 2025 and exceed pre-Covid levels by 20% in 2027.

Earlier this year, Cleartrip, which has essentially catered to lesiure travelers, entered the corporate travel space with the launch of Out of Office .

“As businesses worldwide experience a notable resurgence, we observed an unprecedented spike in the demand for corporate travel,” said Cleatrip CEO Ayyappan R.

According to a report by Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) , India’s business travel spending is estimated to reach $38 billion in 2024, and is projected to make a full recovery to pre-Covid levels by 2025. Businesses are betting that in-person interactions are crucial for business goals and are, therefore, leading to recovery in corporate travel . 

The Corporate Travel Pivot

MakeMyTrip has only started to focus on corporate travel recently, but India’s largest online travel agency is looking to grow this business

Talking about its corporate travel platform, MyBiz, Rajesh Magow, co-founder and group CEO of MakeMyTrip, previously told Skift, “Pre-pandemic, a large part of our business used to be business-to-consumer, but during the pandemic we accelerated our efforts on acquiring new customers on small and medium enterprises as well as for large corporates.”

The platform now has over 55,000 active clients across sectors.

Last month, Yatra.com appointed Gaurav Luthra as Chief Business Officer – New Business Development. Luthra in his earlier role had been the managing director of corporate travel platform FCM Travel.

“He (Luthra) will lend his strategic leadership to drive the company’s corporate travel proposition focused on mid-market customers and will play an instrumental role,” the company said in a statment.

In its latest earnings call for the period ending December 31, Dhruv Shringi, co-founder and CEO of Yatra said, “We further fortified our market leadership in the corporate travel sector by signing 26 new corporate customer accounts in the December quarter with an annual billing potential of INR 2.2 billion ($27 million) underlining the capabilities of our corporate travel platform.”

A Technologically Sound Business

Magow told Skift a key reason why MakeMyTrip was not focused on corporate business earlier was the limited deployment of technology in the segment.

“We always felt there was less innovation in this space and we should wait for our opportunity , ” he added. 

Corporate travel demands are increasing, driving the requirement for enhanced technology. Businesses seek contemporary expense management solutions with user-friendly interfaces, mobile applications, and automated processes to streamline expense reporting and enhance the travel experience for employees.

In February, fintech firm Zaggle Prepaid Ocean Services tied up with travel platform EaseMyTrip to provide integrated travel and expense management solutions to its corporate clients, according to an exchange filing.

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Tags: business travel , Business Travelers , cleartrip , corporate travel , corporate travel management , corporate travel software , Dhruv Shringi , easemytrip , future of business travel , india , india outbound , india travel , makemytrip , online travel , online travel agencies , online travel companies , Rajesh Magow , skift india report , tourism , Travel Trends , yatra

Photo credit: India’s business travel spending is estimated to reach $38 billion in 2024. Joshua Woroniecki / Pixabay

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It's time for companies to rethink their approach to business travel.

The business landscape has rapidly changed since the pandemic, with remote work and hybrid models becoming more prominent. Despite these workforce shifts, one aspect remains constant: business travel.

Business travel is back in full force following an expected dip during the pandemic. Corporate travel budgets are returning to pre-pandemic levels, and more companies are planning budget expansions. A Morgan Stanley survey revealed that over two-thirds of companies with under $1 billion in annual revenue anticipated increased travel budgets in the coming year.

The Impact of Frequently Flying

Frequent travel can significantly impact an individual's physical, emotional, and mental well-being . While companies prioritize conventional risk management areas, they often overlook the personal well-being of their travelers. From maintaining a healthy diet to proper sleep and various emotional components such as loneliness and separation, business travelers encounter numerous potential long-term health disruptions that non-traveling employees don't face.

Business travelers had higher claims than non-travelers for all health conditions across the board, along with a higher likelihood of stress-related disorders, as reported in the Harvard Business Review . Lastly, as shared in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine , frequent business travel adversely affects overall body composition, leading to risks of obesity and various other ailments if left unmanaged, such as heart disease and diabetes.

More and more companies are prioritizing workplace wellness due to factors such as obesity's $400 billion impact on companies . Corporate travel wellness programs are a necessary part of the equation as well. As you look to implement a modern and more robust travel wellness program, start with these two areas:

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New apple id password reset issue hitting iphone ipad and macbook users, messi blocks fc barcelona star from joining inter miami reports el nacional, embrace bleisure travel.

When attracting and retaining the best people, more and more employees choose lifestyle over salary . It's not out of laziness. It's out of a desire for work-life integration. With this in mind, organizations can embrace employees' desires through bleisure . Organizations can promote work-life integration and rejuvenation by allowing employees to combine business trips with leisure activities.

Implementing flexible travel policies that enable team members to extend their trips on the back end is a way to improve employee satisfaction, productivity, and retention rates. Research shows that 89% of business travelers wanted to add a private holiday to their business trips. Traveling for work is energetically demanding, physically and mentally. A few extra days for leisure allow team members to process their trip, recharge, and return at total capacity.

Treat Your Employees Like Athletes

Just as professional athletes require careful management of their physical, emotional, and mental well-being , so do business travelers. Business travel is a stressor with a high burnout rate and decreased performance across the board. As you revamp your corporate wellness travel program, consider your approach to business travel as a sports team thinks of traveling to play an away game.

As you prepare the company playbook for healthier and more productive business traveling, consider the following:

• Providing support for handling jet lag
• Offering advice on maintaining healthy sleep and nutritional habits away from home
• Investing in business class and non-stop flights
• Providing hotels that have conducive amenities for optimal well-being
• Ensuring team members reside in centrally located hotels or apartment hotels

Business travel isn't going anywhere anytime soon, as the average business traveler takes roughly 6.8 trips per year, with business travel in the U.S. from domestic and international travelers also accounting for $387 billion in annual revenue, according to research shared over at Zippia . Incorporating travel wellness initiatives isn't merely an expense; it's an investment in employees' health and performance.

As organizations revamp their corporate travel programs, prioritizing their travelers' well-being is paramount. By implementing strategies to support travel wellness, companies can ensure that their employees remain healthy, engaged, and effective representatives of their companies.

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