(23 May 2007 10:30 pm)

BANGALORE: Yatra Online (YOPL) today announced that it has tied up with Hughes, a global player in providing broadband satellite networks and services. Through the alliance, Yatra’s travel related services including air tickets and Hotels/Packages will be made available via select HughesNet Fusion centers in the country.

HugheNet Fusion Centers will act as extended retail points to offer Yatra.com’s travel services with an integrated offline cash acceptance model of Hughes. Customers who are more comfortable with an offline payment mode will be able to avail the services Yatra.com currently offers online. Through the tie up, Yatra.com hopes to enlarge its customer base by tapping customers who may be reluctant to use credit cards or do not have one.

In the first phase, customers will be able to avail the services through 28 HughesNet Fusion centres across the country by paying cash. Other modes of payments like credit/ debit cards and ITZ cash cards will also be accepted.

With this tie up, customers will have the ease to book from over 1500 hotels and resorts across 140 cities in India, and all domestic airlines with instant confirmations. For further convenience a special phone line has been set up for customers booking through Hughes centers in case they have any queries in regard to their bookings.

Says Yatra Online founder Dhruv Shringi, “We at Yatra.com are constantly looking at ways to be more accessible to our customers and help them choose the cheapest air ticket and best Hotel package. Hughes – Yatra alliance will play a significant role in strengthening our commitment to make traveling smart & simple for customers. Hughes expertise and its pan India reach will help Yatra extend its services to mass consumers in smaller cities and non metros, who are still not familiar or comfortable with internet and credit card transactions and can now on book tickets and pay by cash over the counter.”

During a telecom with Indiantelevison Dhruv revealed that HughesNet Fusion had come in as a franchisee. “Once the franchisee has the basic infrastructure in place, the Yatra team would come in and provide the products. All our inventory becomes accessible to someone who walks into a HugesNet Fusion Center. We are looking at tapping 40-50 per cent of our business from B and C class cities through the Hughes network.”

YOPL’s present top line turnover is around Rs 350 million per month, informed Dhruv.

The release also quotes Hughes director-marketing Vaibhav Magow, director-Marketing,Hughes, “HughesNet Fusion network of centers will help Yatra.com to at once Build Capacity and extend reach to more customers. With our network expansion plans this year we hope to be the largest Value Added partner for Yatra.com (Yatra Online Pvt. Ltd.). Customers can avail a complete range of services through our centers.The tie-up will offer greater accessibility of Yatra.com services to a larger section of the market and help satiate the growing appetite of travel by the Indian middle class."