Abstract

This paper summarises the arguments and counterarguments within the scientific discussion on the issue of Online Travel Industry in India, its evolution and demand. The main purpose of the research is to study the customers’ preferences with respect to the Online travel agents (websites and apps) in India and what makes them stay put. The study of literary sources and approaches for solving the puzzle of consumer behavior in the fast-paced e-commerce scenario indicates that the customers are changing rapidly and that is what they expect from the mediums they are using. The relevance of the decision of this scientific problem is that it will aid the travel industry to understand their respective customers better, helping them stay and make repeat purchases. Investigation of the topic Online trav-el industry-Customer Behaviour, in the paper, is carried out by shortlisting the top six players in the Online travel category and recognizing the important features affecting the customers, making the customers rank them on a structured questionnaire. An online survey was done using http://www.surveymonkey.com. Weighted Average Scores have been calculated to assign importance to the features. The research spans from May 2017 to July 2018. The object of research is the Online travel industry and its users in India. The paper presents the results of an empirical analysis of cus-tomers responses with respect to their preference for the Online travel sites like MakeMyTrip, yatra, trivago, TripAdvisor, ibibo, clear trip and their expectations from them in terms of price sensitivity, variety, post-check-in experience, customized packages, and quality services. The empirical analysis shows that the customers prefer certain factors way more than the others and so the Online travel in-dustry can utilize these findings to focus on the most important ones and maybe decrease the spend-ing on the ones not considered important.

Keywords: e-commerce, India, online travel industry, online customer , makemytrip.

JEL Classification: M30, M31, Z31.

Cite as: Arora, S. (2019). Customer Behaviour-Online Travel Industry in India. SocioEconomic Challenges, 3(1), 90-98. http://doi.org/10.21272/sec.3(1).90-98.2019.

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