'Digital Technology Evolving for New Age Travelers'

According to a report India’s travel and tourism market is poised to grow at rate of 7.5 percent in 2015 and by the year, the travel sector would contribute Rs 8.22 trillion to India’s GDP. So everyone tries to capture some portion of this booming industry & there is severe competition in this industry. There is immense scope for travel companies to in cash the business opportunity here. The growth trend shows a hike of over 400% Y-O-Y in past decade, which is predicted to move similarly.

In an exclusive Interaction with SMEStreet, Mr. Gyanesh and Devesh Kumar Thakur, Directors at Axis Softech shared an overall perspective towards Indian travel & tourism industry and also spoke about the growing role of technology in this segment.

The edited excerpts:

SMESTreet: Technology is considered as a major game changer in this segment. What are your views on how technology, specially internet has changed the Indian Travel segment?

Axis Softech: In Travel and Tourism industry, Technology plays a significant role, Technology has the great advantage that it allows travel industries to replace expensive human labor with technological support, thus not only reducing man power costs but also avoiding issues of customer services.

The advent of digital technology has evolved a new kind of traveler, one who embraces available tools and uses them to jump across industry features. These new travelers do not need handholding; they need the resources and technology to be able to be self-sufficient. They want to make quick reservations, check-in and plan their trip via a virtual platform, all while sharing their experience on their social media outlets. Although today’s traveler demands a high degree of comfort zone, increased technology use has created an interesting scene: The human part in the travel sector may diminish in importance with the rise of the independent, digital traveler caring his or her travel needs.

There is lot of Me-too players in this segment, how do you look at the growing competition for your business and for the industry?

There are few players in travel portal development from last few years but the USP of Axis Softech has always been different, which has pushed as far ahead of our competition. Axis Softech has been performing because we have exclusive products for clients which fit to their requirement & also into their budget and gives them best commission and lowest price when compared with their peer portals. Therefore rather than worrying about competition we focus upon innovation and qualitative services, which definitely keeps a company ahead of its competitors.

How the consumer behavior is changing?

There is a tremendous change in behavior of consumer in travel industry as India is a digital hub and people are tech savvy here, so they love to do bookings from online travel portals. The trend has changed now, no one wants to waste time to book tickets by visiting the desk of agents as it create lot of hassle. They tend to do bookings from their smart phones, laptops and other electronic gadgets. Travel Portals have great impact on the mind of consumer whenever we think of booking a ticket of flight or to book a hotel then only a single medium will knock the mind of consumer,” which is a good and competitive travel portal where he/she can do booking without any hassle”.

What is the role of Social Media in the travel experience?

In addition to use travel portals and mobile apps to increase reach, hospitality and travel businesses are utilizing the power of social media to grow. Facebook improves brand reputation, enhances listings and allows businesses to offer unique deals; Twitter lets hotels connect with guests in real time. However, it is not easy to set up and optimize your Facebook page and maintain your Twitter account without paying someone qualified to do it. Social media must be a crucial component of the marketing mix. Think of your website Facebook page as a second website with the option for guests to contact hotel staff and make reservations.

Technology and the importance of mobile sites are not just a trend; they are the new reality of hospitality. Having an understanding and a strategy for digital technology and mobile sites are key to successfully being able to reach the “new” traveler.

What are your company's key priorities for next 12 months?

We are launching new products that have enriched features where customer can easily book Flight+Hotel, Hotel+Car, Flight+Car and some more innovative products that will be helpful for travel agents, agencies and consumers also, which in itself shall add value and act as a marketing tool to us. With range of versatile products developed at our end, which also tends to cater to the emerging needs of all kinds of travel agencies, we look forward to acquire more than 80% of the Travel Technology market within India and quickly expand towards other growing Global markets like Middle East, Europe and America. We aim to become one of the largest Travel Technology providers globally.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

We are different from our competitors because we provide vast range of products which fits to the budget and requirement of our customers, also we guarantee cheapest fare for tickets to travel agents and agencies for flights, hotels, buses and cars. We also provide best of the commissions & discounts on our fares industry wide. The other feature of Axis Softech which set us apart from other competitor is that we are committed towards our values. We deliver the projects on time and provide customer support to them 24*7*365.