SMEs Powering Corporate Travel Growth in India

Article By Ranjeet Oak, Chief Business Officer - Corporate, MakeMyTrip

India is one of the world's fastest-growing major business travel market and as per some estimates is set to treble in size by 2030 from the current USD 30 billion markets. As per the Global Business Travel Association, Corporate travel business in India holds huge potential with a projected annual growth rate of 11.5 percent and expected spend of up to US$45 billion in 2019.

This growth has been primarily led by key factors like globalisation of organisations, the growth of aviation sector, improving the business climate in India, government’s focus on employment and entrepreneurship in the country. The rise in corporate travel can also be attributed to the parallel rise of the start-ups and SMEs in the country. Now smaller businesses across the country have a unified market due to GST, which will make it easier to do business. This will invariably add to the travel needs that can cater to businessmen across the country. The government has also initiated various measures, including the regional air connectivity scheme UDAN, to bolster the overall travel sector.

Earlier, business travel was a smaller proportion of the entire travel segment, however, now it is considered as an important aspect of the overall growth of any corporate/business. The average spending of a corporation for its travel needs has increased significantly over the past decade. Not just the larger organisations but the small-and-medium-sized companies have realised the importance of Corporate travel for the growth of their business. This leads to a need of managing their travel spending, and thus, increasing number of corporates enrol for corporate travel programs.

Rising corporate travel has led services providers to take a greater interest in the segment. Business travel often involves unplanned flights, last minute hotel booking which can be hard to pull together at short notice. Approximately 25% of this market is controlled by large TMCs or B2B aggregators primarily serving large corporates - setting up Help Desks in client offices to manage travel requirements. The SMEs have not had many affordable options – up until now.

At MakeMyTrip, we identified this gap and took it as an opportunity for us to address the need gap. Our easy to use corporate product tool, MyBiz is a one-stop travel solution for many such organisations especially the SMEs for whom travel is integral to business growth. It helps them get the same advantages that large companies get for their business travels – giving choice to employees, keeping control with the employer while providing savings& benefits for corporates as a self-booking tool, MyBiz can is used by employees on their MakeMyTrip app for all of their business travel needs.

For most organizations, travel and expense spending is the second largest expense besides payroll. The corporate travel booking tool helps solve travel booking challenges by deploying the user-friendly and integrated application. From offering free modifications for flights and hotels, reduced cancellation charges, complimentary in-flight meals and seat selection, hotel upgrades, digitized approval workflows and reporting system to seamless around the clock support – travelling for work has perhaps never been more convenient. Best price guarantee on hotel bookings and GST invoice assurance works as a credibility factor for SMEs on myBiz as the single tool for their business bookings.

More and more companies are today signing up for these online corporate travel tools to help them keep a tab on the outflow of funds owing to business travel as these tools help optimize planning, approval and booking process like never before. Moving complex offline processes online--be it travel policies, approval matrices or a centralised payment options has never been easier and more convenient.