Travel Search Engine heralds a new era of online travel in India

Gurgaon, India – October 31, 2007 – iXiGO (www.iXiGO.com), India’s leading travel search engine announced today that it has reached more than 100,000 active users in a short span of four months since launch. This makes iXiGO the fastest growing travel search portal in India.

iXiGO’s growth heralds a new era in Indian online travel, that of a pure-play travel search, where users can search across travel websites and make more qualified booking decisions, without the need to work with an intermediary and pay additional service fees. The growth of this medium means that suppliers now have a more direct and targeted marketing platform that can yield higher conversion rates than search engine marketing on horizontal portals such as Google or Yahoo.

The rise of travel search engines is a boon for airlines and hoteliers, who can now use price-differentiation and “web-only” campaigns to enable the channel-shift from indirect to direct web bookings. Airlines in India have been quick to adopt travel search as a part of their online marketing mix, seeing iXiGO as a channel of distribution that is both cost-effective for airlines and of greater convenience to travelers.

iXiGO’s quick growth has garnered the attention of the industry in India and industry executive are eager to learn how and why they should embrace this alternate channel to reach consumers, beyond traditional online travel agencies. As a panelist at a recently concluded eyefortravel summit in Mumbai, Aloke Bajpai, Founder & CEO of iXiGO said – “The support of our airline partners and the great feedback of our users drive our innovation. We will extend the same user delight that our flight search users experienced, to our hotels platform, and more”.

Launched in June, iXiGO, allows users to search and book directly on airline websites (unlike intermediary Online Travel portals), thereby offering the lowest possible direct fares. With regular launch of differentiated features such as 1-click booking, fare outlook and multi-airline, multi-stop combinations, iXiGO has already become the number one lead generator in the travel search space for two major airlines in India. Dharmendra Yashovardhan, Head of Marketing, adds with an air of confidence, “Travel Search in India has the potential to leapfrog and overtake the Online Travel Agencies in a few years’ time. iXiGO will be at the forefront when that happens”.

About iXiGO
iXiGO ® (a registered trademark of Le Travenues Technology Pvt. Ltd.) is a Travel Search Engine for India which provides comprehensive real-time price and availability information to Indian travelers. For more information and to stay informed about the product, please visit the company web site at http://www.iXiGO.com/.