Travel Startups in India: Travel and Tourism sector is one of the largest industries in India and is an important engine of world economic growth. It has been a period of increase for the country’s tourism sector controlled by a growing middle class, an increasing number of high-spending foreign tourists, and well-coordinated government action such as the ‘Incredible India’ campaign.
The number of foreign tourists in India did, however, decline during the pandemic years of Covid-19. The number of foreign tourists visiting India dropped down to 1.52 million in 2021 from 2.74 million in 2020, which is a decline of 44.5%. Nevertheless, the earnings in foreign exchange grew during this period: India Tourism Statistics 2022 cited this development. In 2019, the figure for incoming foreign arrivals stood at 10.93 million. The same count plunged by 75% in 2020.
Tourism and travel contributed around $178 billion to India’s GDP, as of a year ago. The Indian government had shared that tourist sector re-establishment should be beyond recovery and up to the next pre-pandemic levels by mid-2024, with projections expected to increase GDP contributions to 250 billion dollars by 2030. According to the Phocuswright report on the India Travel Market, the mechanical size of travel markets across India is $19.1 billion in 2021 and it is predicted to rise to $40.4 billion by 2025 with 58 percent of total revenue from travel sales from online sales.
The upsurge of the IT and outsourcing industries, as vehement in India, has also brought foreign business visitors, whose numbers have filled the threshold of visiting India for travel-business. Combined work and leisure are into the hottest new trend referred to as workcations; travel companies offer them other interesting packages for this nice undertaking where employees may work amidst plangent surrounds, evening sightseeing, and recreational activities. These packages come in a number of versions and are open to a little of every taste.
Lately, starting a travel startup in India could well mean a world of personal touch, in terms of personalized experiences that one would achieve from zeroing in on the destination, completely understanding the local culture, and preparing the stage for an “add a dimension to tourism” kind of holiday. We shall discover in this blog how Indian travel planning startups are enhancing the travel experience, get a bird’s eye view of market players, as well as glimpses of possibilities for the future in this space.
India is now witnessing far-reaching changes in the travel industry, owing to technological advancement and an increase in internet penetration levels. The normal travel offices of yesteryear have been replaced by these technologically inclined travel startups, which offer customers with personal solutions, easier booking processes, and heavily slashed prices.
The number of tech embraces has gone up, so that people demanding a stress-free and customized trip plan increase. India’s startups have moved past just providing booking platforms for easing in full trip planning. Visited destinations, personal touches of the whole itinerary, lodging bookings for stays- all is done like a piece of cake by travel startups, and all this is laid out according to data analysis, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Such principles make sense for planning a worry-free trip in a way that becomes intuitive and very sensitive to the needs of their clientele.
It is much easier with just an online platform, and combined with the experiential travel spike, the startups in this domain will thrive. Be it a solo holiday, family vacation, or a corporate trip, startups would provide all necessary components for making a journey hassle-free.
This time of year witnesses the arrival of several travel planning startups in India that attempt to cater to the different needs of its travelers. Obviously, the one that has made successes and grabs the lion’s share of the craze is:
MakeMyTrip is among the oldest and the most successful travel startups in India. Founded with the view that traveling should not stop a person from receiving competitive pricing because of intermediaries, the web does not just handle air tickets, holiday packages, bookings in hotels, but also the reservations of rail as well as bus services, thus being a one-stop shop for anything and everything related to travel. Continues to develop new ideas, adapt, and blaze its own trail in making travel much more accessible to hundreds of millions of Indians.
Cleartrip is an online travel aggregator that offers flight and train bookings, hotel reservations, and activities-planning services all over India and the Middle East. The Cleartrip for Business travel solutions attract corporate clients. Offers day-to-day tools for flexible bookings and personalized experiences to help users secure travel easily.
Goibibo is one of the unicorns in the Indian travel industry. Its prominent services are making flight, hotel, and bus bookings. It is also famous for its GoCash program, which allows the user to earn and spend money on future bookings using digital currency. The platform has also gained significant traction since the acquisition of redBus. Goibibo takes the lead as an online travel portal, thanks to its user-friendly interface designed for extremely quick booking.
Pickyourtrail is a travel technology startup. It creates fully customizable vacation packages for international travel. The smart algorithm then dishes up very customized itineraries to the traveler based on how long the customer permits travel and other preferences he or she has. This is a project of international travel that will draw travel enthusiasts’ attention by means of customized novel experiences on their holidays.
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This app works differently in that it provides an easier way to plan your road trips. Algorithmic intelligence has provided information that is invaluable in any given road trip: be it gas stations, restaurants, or any other spots that one might take a break at. The app also connects travelers with fellow road trip enthusiasts and allows them to share their itineraries, which gives that extra edge for adventurous souls seeking a journey beyond those offered by regular travel guidebooks.
Thrillophilia is creating adventure and offbeat experiences. This site offers much more to thrill-seekers: bungee jumping, white-water rafting, paragliding, and so on. Thrillophilia works closely with local suppliers to preferentially curate tours and travel experiences. With travel-centricity, this startup is becoming a haunt for customers seeking something innovative beyond the mundane sightseeing.
TravelTriangle is an online marketplace for connecting travelers with reliable travel agencies. The website allows the users to customize and directly book their own vacation packages with ease. The company set up SaaS-based CRM tools well and made the life of travel agents simple.
Tripoto is a crowdsourced travel community where users share their experiences, itineraries, and tips on traveling. The platform is populated by a cluster of travel enthusiasts wishing to plan their ultimate trips while sharing practical information about destinations, lodging, and insider insights about their respective hometowns. Tripoto aims to become the largest living repository of travel content in the world and wishes to help travelers plan their journeys based on lived experiences.
ExTravelMoney is just another online facility for forex services that helps travelers find the best exchange rates and foreign exchange services nearby. The users would be able to compare rates of several forex dealers to save currency exchange and money transfer costs. This method is most beneficial to international travelers who seek to exchange currency with the least hassle.
Nearify is an app that keeps travelers informed of events, festivals, concerts, and activities happening around them. By typing in their destination city name, users can find out what is happening in their vicinity. The app is best suited for a traveler who wants to gain insight into the culture and social life of a location while on their trip.
Read More: Successful Entrepreneurs in India 2025
Overview: Inspired by the character of Mowgli from The Jungle Book, goMowgli is an adaptable bus network covering various states in India. It’s a perfect way for solo travelers and backpackers to hop in and hop out of each city with no itinerary. The platform works well with social media marketing and affordable passes.
Overview: Travelyaari is another entry on our list of online bus booking platforms. The platform goes ahead with thousands of covered buses and a ticket-booking possibility, a price comparison for operators, and an inclination toward inter-city travel.
SeekSherpa is an emerging travel and tourism startup in India that provides personalized travel experiences through local guides called “Sherpas.” Sherpas are different professionals who share their local knowledge through specialized micro tours to enable sight and scenes never experienced in other cities and places before. SeekSherpa has opened up opportunities for tourists, a chance to experience each destination from a local perspective, visiting the places running through sightseeing, photography walks, heritage explorations, or even food walks.
The Indian travel planning startup industry is gearing to grow more as people prefer personalized trips. With the pandemic-induced shift to domestic tourism, travel startups are also hustling to woo local and regional tourists with packages focusing on exploring India’s off-beat destinations.
Mobile applications and digital tools are probably going to serve to make travel planning easier and inexpensive. Small niche travel agencies are increasing their online presence, adding digital payment systems and introducing AI-based recommendations, to ensure a better travel planning process for Indian travelers.
Amid such higher investments in technology, these startups are entering the market and ready to take on the existing models of tourism with smarter, cost-effective solutions to serve the consumer better. The use of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and artificial intelligence (AI) will offer richer experiences for travelers while planning by providing previews of their destinations and activities before booking.
Travel planning startups in India have heralded a new era of personalized and tech-driven travel experiences. With these startups burgeoning and innovating for the future, it is yet to be seen how the travel industry will be redefined with greater convenience, flexibility, and choices than ever before. Using the insights derived from data and AI with access to an online platform powerful enough to provide the traveling public with an easier, faster, and more affordable way of traveling, hassle-free of all logistical nonsense.
The future for travel planning in India looks bright, especially with the current trends of workcation, eco-tourism, and experiential travel. They are going to be the flag-bearers who will change the face of Indian and world travel. Whether a relaxing break or an action-packed adventure, these startups have the potential to change the world for good.
Travel startups are newly set up ventures providing innovative solutions and services within the travel and tourism industry. These ventures mainly deploy novel business models to enhance travel experience by means of technology integration and personalized services to the clients.
Some support provided by travel startups in enhancing the travel experience include customized itineraries, local travel insights, inexpensive packages, seamless booking, and specialist service with regards to adventure travelers, solo travelers, and group tourists.
Although traditional travel agencies generally deal through packaged tours, the travel startups tend to be characterized by flexibility, customization, innovation, and sometimes by services like itinerary building, providing the traveller with direct access to local guides or a platform for comparing services and prices.
OTAs like Travel Triangle provide an online marketplace that helps travellers look, compare, and book travel packages, accommodation, activities and much more. Connecting the traveller and travel agents and service providers live in one place.
Thrillophilia, a start-up, deals with adventure tourism. Their packages include activities such as bungee jumping, rafting, skydiving, trekking, etc.
goMowgli is India’s first flexible bus network providing services to travellers. This is for the comfort of solo travellers and backpackers who want to see a number of cities without going through a fixed timetable.
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This post was last modified on January 20, 2025
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