According to MMT founder and CEO Deep Kalra, people still prefer buying holiday packages offline although the online travel business had grown threefold in the last one year to Rs 54 billion.

Headquartered in Delhi, the company recently launched an office in Ahmedabad and plans to launch Mumbai and Kolkata offices within the next few months.

Sharing some more figures, Kalra said that presently, 25 per cent of all air tickets are bought on the internet, up from 5 per cent in 2004.

He said that Karnataka accounts for only 3 per cent of total outbound and 20 per cent the domestic holidays and hotels sales for MMT. His focus is on holiday market and hotels business to increase the domestic and outbound business from 3 per cent to 7 per cent by FYE 2009 from Bangalore.

According to Kalra, several factors work for Bangalore as a location for their new office.At least five new international airlines carriers are to enter the market in the next one year. The Bangalore International airport is expected to be operational by April 2008. Also, Bangalore has a considerable population of young people with more disposable income, who were very open to experimenting new products and ways of buying.

“The Bangalore market presents a huge opportunity to travel solutions providers. It has always had a strong corporate travel opportunity and today the leisure travel industry too is booming. Holiday or leisure travel currently constitutes around 24 per cent of the total pie – but this segment is growing fast and strong, and is expected to grow 2.5 times to Rs. 7.5 billion in the next three years,” said Kalra.

MMT has planned spends of around Rs 300 million towards mass communication, 40 per cent of these spends will on online promotions, 30 per cent towards TVC’s and the rest towards print, outdoor and events.