By Shantanu Jain

IPG MEDIABRANDS India, in an effort to boost online holiday bookings has joined hands with Google and the travel industry to launch The Great Indian Travel Festival to take place from April 18 to 26, 2015. The first of its kind online festival will offer deals and discounts on travel and stay packages on more than 50 holiday destinations both in and out of India.

The participants of The Great Indian Travel Festival will be key market players of the hospitality industry including brands like Google, Cleartrip, MakeMyTrip, Goibibo, Yatra, Jet Airways, Indigo, British Airways and Spice-Jet. Tour companies Cox & Kings and Thomas and startups such as Oyo Rooms and Doorstepforex will also be offering deals to Indian travelers to capitalise on the upcoming holiday season.

Speaking on the festival Vikas Agnihotri, Industry director, Google India, said, ’There is significant headroom for growth in the hospitality industry and initiatives like these can contribute immensely in promoting the industry and also positively influencing the behavior of- online users’.

’Emphasizing on the concept behind the festival, Deepak Tuli, Co-founder and COO at Goibibo one of the partners of the festival said, ’The idea is inspired by the themes of shopping festivals during December. We thought why not do something on the similar lines for travel as its one of the biggest industries. Our main intention behind the festival is to develop the faith of Indian traveler to book hotel and travel deals online.’

’The festival will be offering over 1500 deals from multiple brands and our expectation from the festival is around 3 Million website visits from users’, added Rahul Marwaha, Executive Vice-President of Interactive Avenues, one of the partners of the festival.

Shantanu Jain is Junior Correspondent, BW Hotelier.-