US$10m bid to capture MidEast online travel market

Monika Canty, March 7th, 2011

Indian online travel company Cleartrip.com has revealed plans to invest close to US$10 million in the Middle East market in a bid to become the leading online travel company in the region.

One of India’s biggest online travel brands, Cleartrip launched a Middle East version of its travel booking website just eight months ago.

Tarique Khatri, VP, business development, Cleartrip said that since its launch in the Middle East the website had seen more than 30,000 travel bookings, and in February received more than 250,000 unique visitors.

The company is targeting a three-fold growth in Middle East business over the next year.

“We will do whatever is required to invest in this market for us to grow and be the leader in this market,” said Khatri. “By this time next year we should be three times as big as what we are today.”

Cleartrip.com is one of the first online travel agencies to lauch in the Middle East allowing customers to pay in local currency.

But while the online travel market is yet to fully take off in the Middle East – Khatri estimated that currently only 10% of tickets are sold online in the Middle East, compared to 60% in India - he said the potential for online travel in the region was “phenomenal”.

“One of the most interesting things about the Middle East is that the internet population is growing incredibly fast – it's one of the fastest growing in the world.

“While there are no official numbers in terms of the e-commerce market in this region, there are different numbers floating in the market ranging from $35 billion to $100 billion," he added.

"More importantly after meeting up with a lot of airlines in region, that they said close to 24 – 25% of their transactions were happening online. This was a clear indication that there was definately a big potential for an online travel agent in this market."

Cleartrip now has plans to launch its mobile booking tool for Middle East customers as well as dedicated websites for travel agents and corporate customers.