All you need is passport

Anmol Arora, Associate Director - Revenue Management

 

‘The only trip you will regret is the one you don’t take.’

 

Travel is not a necessity but an aspiration. We can live without it, sure, but the experience of exploring a new city or culture adds a sense of richness to our lives. Undoubtedly, it can even change lives. It can open our minds to stronger, better possibilities, create magical memories, or make us value home. As someone working in a travel company, making travel accessible for everyone, it is not just a job but a mission.

 

 My team and I had been working hard to understand how we can make International flights and travel accessible? Have we tried all possibilities? We rolled out a customer survey, and as a result of the study, we realized that ‘affordability’ was a significant concern. The price of an international flight ticket stopped most middle-class aspiring travelers to book. Additionally, the option of Easy monthly installments (EMI) had been made accessible through other e-commerce players on high purchase items like premium mobile phones, appliances, etc. But no single online travel aggregator (OTA) was riding this wave. That’s when we decided to jump in.

 

We decided to offer a whole bouquet of EMI options for customers. Other than providing these options, we realized that to get results, we needed to educate customers and use our creativity to create different permutations and combinations with various banks and create products like No Cost EMI. We also brought together significant banks for the first time for a Mega EMI Fest. We ran multiple single bank campaigns and big multi-bank campaigns on both MakeMyTrip and GoIbibo.

 

These initiatives and our constant commitment to make EMI a significant growth driver, resulted in the EMI share touching 10% of our international flights bookings, up from less than 4% in 2018. Not only that, we have now embarked on a journey to bring the next billion users online, and have them traveling with GO-MMT.

 

Today, we have enabled hundreds of Indians to travel abroad and realize their dreams. I would like to believe; we haven’t just facilitated someone’s first international trip, we have planted a seed, we have opened their hearts and minds. We have changed mindsets. We have reminded someone, somewhere that the world is your oyster.