HelloTravel.com plans to expand footprint to international markets

TravelBizmonitor.com,

NCR-based traveller lead provider HelloTravel.com is planning to expand its footprint to international markets in the coming years. The company, which introduced the ‘Pay per Lead’ concept in India, is looking to have a presence in destinations like Egypt, Singapore, Thailand and Kenya by enrolling more destination agents from these markets.
Madhup Agrawal, CEO, HelloTravel.com, while speaking with TravelBiz Monitor, said, “We already have destinations agents from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Kenya, etc. purchasing our traveler leads. We want to expand further to other international destinations as well.”

Moreover, the company will soon introduce mobile applications for its solutions so agents can purchase leads on their mobiles. “We keep on innovating and adding new features on a regular basis based on demands from our members. By introducing a mobile application, we want to make travel enquiries accessible easily,” he added. HelloTravel will also develop tools by which travel agents can define their choice of queries and the size and value of queries they want to handle on a daily, weekly basis, etc. Agrawal added that their endeavour is to make the flow of enquiries fast and flexible for travel agents.

According to Agrawal, more than 3.5 lakh travellers have shared their enquiries on HelloTravel.com in the last three years. On an average, HelloTravel.com generates 30,000 travel queries for domestic, inbound and outbound travel. All queries are verified by a call centre before being flagged on the online platform to ensure authenticity, and a maximum of four agents can buy a query. Travel agents have to pay for each lead that they buy from HelloTravel.com. Agrawal said that 20 to 25 per cent of the queries are converted into business for travel agents, which is a commendable conversion rate by industry standards. “Normally, the maturity rate of queries into actual business in the travel industry is six to seven per cent,” he informed.

“We were the first to launch the ‘Pay per Lead’ model in the travel business, and have grown 100 per cent year-on-year in the last three years. We were the game changers in creating a level playing field for all types of travel agents. By enrolling with us, travel agents can save a lot of marketing spend which they otherwise spend on advertising in different channels,” he said. Agrawal said that while the company would continue to add new features to the platform, they would stick to the revenue model in the future too.

A unit of IndiaMart.com, HelloTravel.com started three years ago and currently has more than 1,500 big, medium and small travel agents as members who use the online platform to purchase traveller leads.