Yatra, an online travel agency, is focusing on expanding its corporate share and enhancing its services to grow its market. The company signed 83 new corporate clients in fiscal 2024 with an annual billing potential of INR 5.4 billion ($64.7 million). It has also launched a new expense management solution powered by generative AI to help businesses manage their travel and non-travel expenses more efficiently. This product is aimed at both the Indian market and international markets, according to Yatra’s CEO Dhruv Shringi. The company is looking to capitalize on the profitability of the expense management segment.
In addition to expanding its corporate offerings, Yatra has also launched a guesthouse booking platform for its corporate clients. This platform allows customers to view guesthouses contracted by both Yatra and their respective corporate in one place, with real-time inventory. By offering guest houses, Yatra aims to help customers optimize their lodging expenses. Looking ahead to the 2024-25 period, the company plans to focus on growing its hotels business for both customers and corporate clients. They have hired a team to scale hotels in the corporate travel segment and are actively pitching hotels to current corporate customers. The company also plans to enhance and modernize its hotel platform.
Yatra saw a 12% annual growth in gross bookings, with a focus on revamping their domestic flight booking flow to enable better upselling and cross-selling of supplementary products. This new booking flow includes options for premium seat selection, multi-fare options, and travel insurance at the point of booking. The company’s domestic air passengers increased by 24% year-on-year, twice the industry growth rate, indicating that Yatra is gaining market share in this segment. In the fourth quarter, they signed 25 new corporate clients, showing that their corporate business segment has recovered to pre-Covid levels.
The company’s CEO, Dhruv Shringi, stated during an earnings call that Yatra is actively working on expanding its hotel segment. They have plans to scale hotels in the corporate travel segment and are focusing on growing their hotels business for both customers and corporate clients. Yatra recorded bookings in the hotels and packages segment worth INR 8.74 billion ($105 million) in fiscal 2024, up from INR 8.15 billion ($98 million) in the previous year. However, the number of hotel room nights booked declined slightly from nearly 1.8 million in 2022-23 to 1.7 million in 2023-24, indicating a potential area for improvement.
Overall, Yatra’s emphasis on growing its corporate share, enhancing its offerings with new products like the expense management solution, and expanding its hotels business point to a strategic direction for the company. With a focus on capturing market share in the domestic air travel segment and offering new services for corporate clients, Yatra is positioning itself for further growth in the online travel sector. The company’s performance in fiscal 2024, including a 12% annual growth in gross bookings and increased domestic air passengers, indicates that their strategies are gaining traction in the market.
