Online travel agencies and travel portals have had an enigmatic run till now in digital India. At times the most crowded (even now) for its potential and then stories of dropping numbers at other times. Being primarily driven by air transport business till the recent past, the trouble in the skies directly had an impact on OTA’s as well. This of course resulted in diversification or the call for one at the least. And we did see a lot of it happening in the industry. On the same lines, TravelMasti.com has announced a new avenue of service for its users – a wedding site.
This is what the whole concept is according to their release:
Travelmasti has therefore launched a new website catering to the wedding solutions for those who are eager to wed in India. Travelmasti’s wedding team has put together information on weddings in India, such as themes, destinations, itineraries, wedding venues etc. Starting from choosing the destination, our team of wedding specialists recommend and suggest the right wedding venue, the hotel accommodation, theme ceremonies, what to wear, where to shop and so on.
So weddings.. why?
The point can very well be the need to go beyond the ticket as we had once blogged, but then what most people did with that was go to other modes of travel like buses for instance. So clearly this is an attempt at carving a USP, a unique identity to distinguish from the crowd and noise.
Weddings perhaps are like the entertainment industry and no matter what the economic condition can remain recession free. In the great Indian culture framework weddings are probably planned and accounted for years in advance to ensure no recession can take away the glory from it. And all said and done Indian weddings are quite a treat, so what’s the best thing a travel site can do – make it into an tourist spot. Not a bad ploy on the face of it. And to add to it they’re also giving the wedding people to add more zest to their plans with themes and schemes.
The money bags will perhaps come from the honeymoon packages they sell besides the wedding planners thus not diluting the core business as well.
However, I don’t consider this move effective for two reasons:
1. Wedding is a personal aspect for many and wedding planning is not purchased like a commodity in India. For all practical purposes people still use wedding related services on the basis of personal recommendations and references offline than otherwise. Moreover, how much of a bent would a lot of families have to seek a themed wedding away from their regular traditions is also questionable.
2. The more pertinent reason however is Travel Masti moving away from being a technology company. The way I see it based on what they mention and also on the site, this is a more people driven effort and more than being a value add to travel it instead seems a cost centre and travel on the other hand seems the value add here. I don’t know how much of a business sense does that make for essentially a travel planning service.
However, the step doesn’t seem illogical at least, and can perhaps even provide it enough breathing space in what seems a continued difficult time for a lot of online travel companies. Also another important point that might work to its advantage is the international audience who do fancy Indian weddings and travel quite a lot. There is certainly value being offered to them in addition to the travel plans the site provides.
i can see why you don’t consider this to be a effective move, but you might have mis-judged a couple of points.
i dont think their TG is indian – its definitely the west/eu. even their testimonials are of foreign nationals, which is why this makes sense.
Agreed, indians are not going to buy marriage planning as a commodity, BUT we all know how westerners love to have an off-beat (out-of-the-box) wedding. which is where travelmasti and the much famous colourful-ritualistic-loud-firecrackerish indian weddings as a theme, come in.
I think its an interesting move, and the success will entirely depend on their execution (intl marketing and local operations wise)
don’t you think so?
As in foreign nationals getting married the Indian way.. I actually didn’t consider that aspect going by their pr it was portrayed as how Indians perceive their weddings and so on.. However, yeah I agree with you on the point for this being a value add for western audience have added that in the last para ..
I know a lot of people from Indian descent that would love that
Wedding services industry in India has come of age. Not only Indians but many foreigners are also choosing India to hold wedding ceremonies. Most of them are fascinated by the strange customs followed by various Indian communities. Many of them want to get married according to one of many Indian customs. There is going to be many more players offering a multitude of wedding related services. There is plenty of scope too.