MakeMyTrip Launches ‘Experiences’ To Offer Hyperlocal Travel Services

Online travel company MakeMyTrip Limited has announced the launch of ‘Experiences’, aimed at providing consumers with curated and unique hyperlocal travel services.

To be noted, earlier community-driven hospitality company Airbnb launched the ‘Experience’ service in March last year, while Cleartrip launched the service in May 2018.

The first phase of the launch has been rolled out at metros and cities across 10 states including Jaipur, Pune, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Goa, among others.

“We have leveraged insights from millions of consumers about what they like at various destinations and what they value as good experience. We expect these high frequency use cases to drive even higher engagement,” the official statement cited MakeMyTrip co-founder Rajesh Magow as saying.

MakeMyTrip ‘experiences’ is currently available for Android users and plans are on the cards to avail the service for iOS users soon. The services include:

• Range of leisure activities — food walks, daycation, museum visits, sporting arenas and more, we can truly enhance in-destination experience for our users — and other handpicked experiences.
• Other curated activities include entertainment shows, adventure sports, amusement parks, dining, outdoor activities, luxury spas, exclusive deals with restaurants.
• Travelers will also be able to make use of the My Wallet money on their MMT App to purchase these experiences.

The company has announced to avail ‘experiences’ in other apps, including online travel platform Goibibo and online bus ticket booking platform redBus.

The net revenue of MakeMyTrip was $137.4 Mn for the first fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2018.

Inc42 had cited Group Chairman & CEO Deep Kalra saying, “By leveraging our multiple brands and introducing relevant product and technology innovations, we have been able to achieve greater loyalty from existing customers as well as welcome many first-time internet users onto our booking platforms across India.”

MakeMyTrip has taken several measures including:

• The parent company has infused over $24.74 Mn in its Indian arm.
• It recently invested in Bitla Software, adding it to its existing portfolio companies such as GoFro, HolidayIQ, Inspirock, ixigo.com, Simplotel, and Mygola.com.
• It has partnered with Flipkart, wherein the ecommerce company will offer travel services of MakeMyTrip –along with Goibibo and redBus –on its platform.
• It has also partnered with hotel aggregator OYO to bring together OYO’s economy, mid-segment and vacation rental assets.
• After its merger with Ibibo has been spending significantly on customer inducement and acquisition.

With the launch of hyperlocal ‘experience’ service, MakeMyTrip is clearly looking forward to dominating India’s online travel market, which according to Praxis stood at $5.71 Bn in 2015, and is expected to touch $13.6 Bn by 2021.

Update 1, October 12, 2018 at 12:20

The story earlier mentioned FabHotels as one of the companies MakeMyTrip has invested in. However, the information is incorrect. The article has been updated to correct the error.