Ixigo : The Gurugram-based online travel agency (OTA), Ixigo, intends to enter the hotel bookings market later this year, according to a story in The Hindu Business Line. For hotel accommodations, the business currently directs all customers to booking.com.

The CEO and co-founder of Ixigo, Aloke Bajpai, showed his pleasure about this tactical choice by saying, “As an OTA, entering the hotel industry is a logical evolution for us. Although we have been working with Booking.com to provide hotel stays, we feel that from a business economics viewpoint it is now time to expand this market on our own.

According to a research by the travel consulting company Videc, Ixigo currently has a meagre 1% market share in the hotel sector, while MakeMyTrip dominates with 55.6%, followed by yatra.com and Cleartrip with 3.6% and 1.9%, respectively.

Bajpai noted that Ixigo’s desire to forge a significant footprint in the internet travel sector and lessen dependency on third parties was what ultimately motivated the company to enter the hotel market. Despite the competition and the difficult road ahead, Bajpai stated with assurance, “Our user base gives us an advantage, and we won’t need to overspend on acquiring customers like many initial hotel OTAs.”

With more than 60 million monthly active users and more than 6 million daily active users, Ixigo has amassed a sizable user base over the years.

The business is continually looking into several potential sources of income, such as trips and package deals. To strengthen their packages segment, they recently partnered with travel-tech startup Pick Your Trail. The company intends to enter the packages and experiences area after becoming established in the hotel reservations segment, while also stepping up its visa segment.

Source- Travel biz