Yatra.com Case Study

An Introduction:

The case study which was given by Avian Media (New Delhi) is of their client which has got recognition in just few years and has proven itself after having such a tight competition like Makemytrip.com. The case study is of Yatra.com which has really made a mark in the past few years.

The need for calling PR Consultancy by yatra.com is the tight competition while they were entering the market was makemytrip.com. Makemytrip.com was leading at the time of its entrance and was well established. At that time the online travel company was at its nascent stage. Makemytrip.com had already established as a pioneer in the industry. Initially yatra.com has faced little difficulty but later has proven itself and after yatra.com came into existence several other online travel companies like cleartrip.com and tarvelguru.com mushroomed because of which yatra.com at its initial faced tough competition from the other companies at the same space.

As far as Indian scenario is concerned most of the travel related transactions are done through offline agents that are why the online companies face a tough time and take little extra time to establish themselves. The major reason behind the offline transactions were the doubt on the authenticity and credibility of the online travel companies. Another doubt which prevailed in peoples mind was that how fruitful and also how safe is to disclose the details of the credit or debit card.

About Yatra.Com:

Yatra.com is India's leading travel services company. It helps consumer’s book air tickets, hotel rooms; holiday packages both for Domestic and International destinations. Bookings at yatra.com can be made by logging on to the website, calling the 24x7 customer care center or walking into any of the yatra.com Holiday Lounges across India. Yatra.com is backed by some of the world's most reputed companies - Reliance ADA Group, Network 18, Norwest Venture Partners and Intel Capital.

Yatra.com is born to address the needs of tourists looking for a one stop solution from where they can plan their travel to any destination in India. Yatra.com’s main objective is to help the traveler in planning a fascinating tour of India from the convenience of his/her own home. Any and every travel related information is available at Yatra.com. Here you will get information on not only major cities but also on smaller cities as well. Detailed information on tourist places both renowned and exotic will help you plan your tour better.

The Task:

Avian Media played an important role; here Avian’s task was to build the credibility for both the yatra.com and the online industry also. Yatra.com needed a strong PR effort to come with a bang
and build the brand “YATRA” in India. Putting this all together the main motive was to create awareness about the online travel industry and specially yatra.com, and to also built a trust for yatra.com in domestic travel market and also to develop a national PR strategy.

Strategy:

• The communication and the marketing strategies taken by the Avian Media covered 21 cities across India and it undertook the exhaustive media relation in those 21 cities.
• Another focus of yatra.com was to provide different and attractive product offers. They were also focusing and highlighting the innovative technology and the strong financial back up of yatra.com.

• As they had a lot strategies for giving them a prominent grip in the market so they proactively initiated the industry stories in the target media to build the credibility of the online travel industry.

• Avian Media helped them building the profile of the company through various media channels and industry speakership opportunities.

• Through initiating corporate growth stories showcasing yatra.com as the fastest growing online travel company.

These were the few points which were included in the strategies for yatra.com.

Result:

After all these efforts the position of yatra.com is clear in the current scenario. Yatra.com has proven itself in the past few days. Yatra.com made a successful entry in the online travel market with immediate visibility in 21 key cities without spending much on advertising. With a turnover of $118 million in the very first year, Yatra.com had become the fastest growing travel portal. From December 06 – December 07 Yatra.com got PR mileage of Rs. 12, 54, 46,033. The brand values enhanced – great technology and exclusivity. Within 1.5 years Yatra.com has a market share of 30%.

 

Who started it – Mr. Dhruv Shringi,Co-Founder
Mr. Manish Amin,Co-Founder
Ms. Sabina Chopra,Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of Operations
Yatra.com was established in 2006 by some of few travel industry leaders.
About them – Yatra.com is India’s leading travel services company. It helps consumers book air tickets, hotel rooms, holiday packages both for Domestic and International destinations. Bookings at yatra.com can be made by logging on to the website, calling the 24×7 customer care center or walking into any of the yatra.com Holiday Lounges across India.
Yatra online is a travel company providing information, pricing, availability and booking facility for air travel, hotels, buses and car rentals across 5000 large cities and small rural areas around the globe. As an online travel company, Yatra.com acts as a complete tour planner for travelers and is a one-stop shop for every travel need.
Funding -- $17M in Unattributed funding, Investors
Employees – 700
Why they are successful – – The Company achieved a turnover of $120 million in the year 2007 and projects a turnover of US $ 220 million by the end of calendar year 2008.
Address –
B21 – Infocity Sector 34
Gurgaon, Haryana 122001
India
Phone: 0124-3040500
Gurgaon, IND
Gorund Floor Tower A
Unitech World – Cyberpark
Gurgaon, 122001, IND

Challenges

Yatra.com is one of India’s leading online travel portals that offers end to end tour plans and individual services like air travel bookings, hotel reservations and car/bus rentals. The site provides travelers with over 5000 destinations across India. It provides hotel reservation functions to over 2500 hotels across 250 Indian destinations in addition to access to over 90,000 hotels across the globe through international tie ups. Yatra.com has 80,000 visitors and on an average makes 6500 air travel booking and over 300 hotel room night reservation everyday. With such high transactional loads focused solely on the sites IT capabilities, it became vital that infrastructure is managed professionally by a partner who can not only provide 24/7 site uptime but also be able to cope with sudden increases in load during peak times. The bottom line was to have the site up and running all the time, without a glitch.

Solution

After evaluating its options, Yatra.com chose Netmagic Solutions, reputed for providing industry leading IT infrastructure services, as its IT partner. Netmagic Solutions’ tie up with multiple ISP provided eradicated the risk of hosting the service with a sole internet provider. Netmagic enabled Yatra.com to have around the lock uptime and flexible bandwidth. It also put an effective disaster recovery plan in place in addition to 24/7 back up and support t enable functioning of mission critical functions even during times of disaster.

Benefits

Netmagic Solutions’ industry leading IT Infrastructure and Hosting services eliminated the risks involved in hosting a high volume and complex site like Yatra.com on a single internet service provider. Netmagic lived up to its market repute of providing 24/7 uptime and high levels of scalability to its client when it seamlessly accommodated sudden increases in transaction loads as it did during Yatra.com’s 777 promotion. Netmagic Solutions’ robust Disaster Recovery Plans and around the lock support and back up services keep the Yatra.com site and mission critical functions up and running, even during times of disaster like the Mumbai floods of 2005. With a reliable and dependable IT partner like Netmagic Solutions to manage and power its IT dependencies, Yatra.com now focuses precious resources, including human capital, towards core businesses.