The significant role that travel agents play in promoting tourism was underlined in a RedSeer report titled ‘Travel market in India’. According to data provided by RedCore, an arm of the Bengaluru-based market research firm, 80% of international air travel and international leisure travel is currently booked through agents.
“Travel in India is still heavily dependent on agents, who not just offer convenience and trust, but are also price competitive to direct booking. They represent over 50% of the travel market share and are expected to maintain this share in coming years,” said Anuj Kumar, Director at RedCore.
TRAVEL WITH CONFIDENCE
Given the ever-changing guidelines related to travel and pandemic-related uncertainties, customers increasingly prefer to make their travel booking through agents. The RedCore report noted that the top 750 agents do INR 3 to INR 4 crore of business per month, capturing 12% of the agent travel market. These agents largely focus on air travel and have corporate tie-ups.
These are followed by mid-sized 60,000 agents who do a business of Rs 20 lakh per month. Largely focusing on selling holiday packages, these agents capture more than 50% agent market share. The remaining 35% travel agent market share is captured by a long chain of 250,000 small agents, the report noted.
According to RedCore, India’s overall travel market was $75 billion in FY20, and is expected to cross $125 billion by FY27. It further noted that over 3 lakh agents are expected to cater to over $65 billion of the overall market size during this period.
“The travel market shrunk significantly in FY21 but the recovery is expected to continue in FY22, and also expects to see a spike in the later years due to pent-up demand,” the report noted. It found that there is a lack of players operating in the packages segment, who could curate the package according to customer requirements.
The Indian travel market is dominated by 3 lakh travel agents who represent the largest share by booking channel of 52%. The role of these agents significantly increased during the pandemic.
