Musafir.com opens inning in India

Musafir.com, the recent entrant in the online travel agent (OTA) industry, plans not just to survive but grow with its differentiated offering, holiday packages.

The UAE-based company was founded in August 2007 by Mohammed Al Thani, Sachin Gadoya and Albert Dias. It made its foray in India in October, this year. The investors in India include UAE-based Universal Travel & Tourism and the Mumbai-based business group, Viva Holding.

Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar also has minority stake in the company (reportedly around 7 per cent). Musafir.com has recently launched its first TVC on the digital platform; it will hit the television screens this week. It has been created by Publicis Ambience and features Tendulkar, who is also endorsing Musafir.com in India, as a photo booth owner.

Talking about the association with Tendulkar, Albert Dias, co-founder, Musafir.com tells afaqs!, "Sachin has associated with us in an active role and we are grateful to him. People ask me that what will happen after six to seven months when he will lose his brand value and I tell them he has built a brand for a lifetime now. It's the trust he embodies, the achievement he has got. Sachin now is free to enjoy travelling and that's what Musafir.com stands for. It tells people to leave their worries behind and travel."

Musafir.com has invested about Rs 100 crore in India, of which Rs 25 crore will be spent in marketing in one year. The company, according to Dias, is targeting to break even in the sixth year of its existence in the country. "As a business, we are very careful about the Indian market, recognise the competition, the revenue opportunities. We also know that there were few OTAs in India that had to shut their shops. Our revenue in the coming years in India will be primarily driven by our shift in the hotel and holiday planning and it's a strategic focus."

India is the first country in which Musafir.com is expanding. "We plan to expand in the Middle East in the coming years." The company has set up only its sales and marketing team in India; the other functions are taken care of from the UAE. Musafir.com's strength in India is of 50 people with its office in Mumbai.

Dias adds that there has been 30 per cent growth in the number of new consumers that are coming to online travel websites (as per comScore) and there is an opportunity to tap those people as well. The core target group of the company is people in the age group of 25-44 years with primary focus in top 20 cities (metros and Tier I cities). The company is gender agnostic but leads with males since they seem to be transacting more.

Talking about the other marketing activities, Manu Monga, marketing head of Musafir.com India, says, "It's a fairly elaborate brand launch. We are looking at an integrated approach with focus on digital and electronic media. On TV, the commercial will run across genres including regional, niche, mix of Hindi and English. We had also taken all the mobile chargers at Delhi and Mumbai airports (both international and domestic, around 100) as our business is about travel."

Monga feels that the space is very nascent right now. "There is so much headroom for everybody to grow. Hence, we are focusing on doing our own business right now," he adds.

The company will do out of home and radio promotions as well. While the airport promotions were done in association with Times OOH, the company has hired Maxus as its media agency and the OOH wing of Maxus will help the brand. Flare Path has come on board as the digital agency.

In an interesting promotional initiative, Musafir.com had collaborated with TABcabs to offer free cab rides to Sachin's fans from 10 designated points in Mumbai to Wankhede Stadium for all the days of the India-West Indies test match. It was to commemorate Sachin's 200th test match.

For the record, like Tendulkar, actor Salman Khan has also associated with a travel portal, Yatra.com in which he owns 5 per cent stake. He is also the brand ambassador for the company.