EbixCash, the financial exchange division of US insurance solution provider Ebix, has acquired assets of India’s Business Travels Group to aggressively grow its Via Travel business.
Industry veteran Praveen Chugh of Business Travels Group, who is also president of Travel Agents Federation of India, has immediately taken over as Via – COO, agency sales.
Ebix chairman, president and CEO Robin Raina, commenting on Chugh’s appointment, said: “His vast experience, success record and contacts in the world travel industry provide us with an industry veteran who can lead Via B2B sales to new heights. He has the ability and drive to grow our Via Travel Division business at high double-digit rates.”
Chugh said: “Via is already among the top five B2B travel companies in the country. My primary objective is to utilise my vast experience in the travel B2B segment especially in the airline ticketing domain to grow Via’s B2B business manifolds.
“The company at present is doing approximately an annual turnover of Rs30 billion (US$410 million) and the aim is to take it to Rs100 billion in the next few years.”
The appointment of Chugh follows a number of key senior sales leadership hires in the corporate travel sector by EbixCash, for its corporate and luxury travel initiative – Mercury.
On top of being given the mandate to grow the B2B business of Via through multiple sales and acquisition channels, Chugh has also been empowered to recruit as many as 100 domain specific travel sales executives besides opening up new travel locations across the country.
The Via distribution network encompasses over 85,000 agents in India, 14,700 agents in Indonesia, 9,900 agents in Philippines, 600 agents in Singapore, and 350 agents in UAE and Oman.
Besides being one of the leaders in the space in India, the company has emerged as the largest travel solutions provider in the Philippines. With a hotel inventory of over 500,000 hotels and one of the largest ticketing platforms expanding across corporates and distribution outlets, Via has a significant share of the domestic and international airline ticketing business.
Ebix considers the size of the Business Travels assets acquisition immaterial and thus did not disclose the financial details of the transaction. Ebix funded this transaction through internal sources using its own cash reserves.
- additional reporting by Rohit Kaul
Ctrip, which says it sees 40 per cent of traffic opening its app in non-homebase destinations, is on a drive to make the “super app” the only one that users will use when they travel overseas.
In a video interview on the sidelines of ITB Asia last week, Victor Tseng, Ctrip’s vice president corporate affairs, told TTG Asia: “We’ve been seeing a tremendous diversification in how users are using Ctrip. Now they’re using Ctrip throughout their whole itinerary. That’s been an important initiative for us to continue to push, particularly when users are travelling overseas.”
Ctrip is expanding its capabilities for users overseas, so they don’t have to open another app to seek the right information, user reviews or booking tools.
Issues such as a slowdown in China’s economy, foreign currency fluctuations and Sino-US trade tiff are creating “a macro overhang”, Tseng admitted, but pointed to the recent Golden Week which delivered around nine per cent growth as a reason to be optimistic.
“When you look at nine per cent relative to other parts of the world in terms of travel spend, that’s still very, very good growth,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ctrip’s ambitions to expand and tap global market sources through Trip.com are “making very good inroads”, Tseng said. Currently, the key markets Trip.com is focusing on include South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Australia and Russia.
Localisation is one of the ways Trip.com is taking to attract users to the site. In Singapore, for instance, the team works with local hotels to target staycations, which Singaporeans love.
Watch the full video to hear the full initiatives Ctrip is taking to stay ahead in the global industry here.