rom a promising economy India has become one of the world's fastest growing markets across categories and sectors. Take the travel and tourism sector. According to the WTTC (World Travel and Tourism Council), India is the world's second-fastest growing travel and tourism economy. Over the next 10 years, India's travel and tourism demand is expected to achieve an annual real growth of 8.8 per cent. The transformation is not just in numbers. More and more travellers in India are changing the way they plan their travel. More than ever before, the tech-savvy are using the net to choose places they want to visit, check out the availability of flights, hotels and the best packages or deals before taking that trip. This is where the travel portals come in.

One such venture is makemytrip.com (MMT). The five-year-old website which had, so far, catered to inbound travel from the US recently launched services in India too. Its striking campaigns in the electronic and the print media have already made quite an impact. Created by Leo Burnett the TVC, for example, shows some people on a beach carrying an extra long banner which proclaims that if the customer can get a cheaper air ticket than that offered on the MMT website, it will refund the difference. That is a first for a travel portal. So what drives MMT?... more