Travel-tech firms cautiously optimistic amidst Omicron wave
Despite the dip and rescheduling of travel plans in January due to Omicron, travel and hospitality tech players are confident of a faster rebound, fuelled by leisure travel in the latter part of 2022.
Good Morning,
After seeing an upswing in travel and hotel bookings during the end of the year, the online travel aggregators (OTA) and hospitality sector is seeing a significant dip in both domestic and international travel amidst the third COVID-19 wave.
Reservations for international travel have dropped drastically, with industry players estimating the plunge to be close to 60 percent, while domestic travellers have rescheduled plans, leading to a 30 percent decline in bookings.
“Since the emergence of Omicron in India, we have witnessed a drop of around 15 percent in domestic flight bookings. International travel has been affected owing to restrictions implemented across the globe. Despite this new surge, the travel sentiment remains strong, and this can be evidenced by the fact that many travellers are now planning to partake in revenge and leisure travel,” Rikant Pittie, Co-founder of OTA , told YourStory.
Despite the temporary slowdown, most of these players expect a stronger rebound, especially in leisure travel and due to extended work-from-home policies. Industry players are optimistic about recovery in 2022.
The Interview
In 2016, Ujjwal Jain, Founder and CEO of , founded the platform to build a Unified Wealth Interface (UWI) for the asset and wealth management ecosystem on top of broking.
In a conversation with YourStory, Ujjwal talks about how WealthDesk's journey started, its curated portfolios WealthBaskets, how it bootstrapped because patient capital was needed to achieve the patient UWI vision, and more.
Editor’s Pick: 100X Entrepreneur podcast
Abhishek Rungta revels in the joy of angel investing. More than a decade after founding Seeders, an angel fund with Pallav Nadhani of Fusion Charts, Abhishek has backed over 100 startups and has made eight exits.
In a conversation with the 100X Entrepreneur podcast, he says the best lessons in the segment came from mistakes and missed opportunities. Read more.
Startup Spotlight
Marrying design with tech to build dream homes
Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) startup offers end-to-end solutions for designing homes starting from designing, manufacturing home accessory products to installing them.
Design Cafe is optimistic about its growth in the home solutions space despite competition from heavyweights such as Livspace and Homelane. Read more.
The Design Cafe Space
News & Updates
- Internet entrepreneurs Falguni Nayar and Sanjeev Bikhchandani weighed in on the Ashneer Grover controversy at an event organised by Institutional Investor Advisory Services. Ashneer has been in the spotlight since an audio clip went viral on social media on January 5, in which he is allegedly swearing at an employee of Kotak Mahindra Bank.
- Ashneer Grover, Co-founder and MD, , has taken a voluntary leave of absence from BharatPe until the end of March, the company said in a press release.
- Trailblazing India tennis star Sania Mirza on Wednesday announced that she will hang up her racquet at the end of the 2022 season as her body is "wearing down" and the motivation and energy for everyday grind are not the same anymore.
Before you go, stay inspired with…
“The travel-tech industry, which democratised travel and made tourism more affordable than ever, will play a monumental role in the post-COVID times.”
— Varun Vagish, Founder of Mountain Trekker
Now get the Daily Capsule in your inbox. Subscribe to our newsletter today!
