MAM
Yatra marks 20 years with film charting India’s travel transformation
Online travel platform celebrates two decades after 106 million visits and nearly 80,000 hotel listings in FY25
MUMBAI: Every journey starts with a booking, but some end up telling the story of an entire industry. As Yatra turns 20, the online travel company is looking back at two decades of India’s digital travel revolution, releasing an anniversary film that traces its evolution from the era of SMS bookings to today’s AI-powered travel experiences.
Founded in 2006, Yatra has unveiled a milestone film chronicling its growth alongside the changing habits of Indian travellers. The narrative follows the company’s technological journey, highlighting how online travel has evolved from basic digital bookings to voice-enabled and generative AI-assisted trip planning.
Over the years, Yatra has introduced several technology-led features, including SMS-based bookings in 2007, cash-on-delivery payments in 2010 and Yatra Mini, a low-bandwidth application launched in 2016 to improve accessibility. In 2024, the company expanded its corporate travel capabilities, introduced voice search and rolled out its generative AI assistant, RECAP.
The company’s latest annual report paints a picture of how far it has travelled. During FY 2024-25, Yatra recorded 106 million visits, achieved a 97.3 per cent booking success rate, and offered access to around 80,000 hotels and homestays across approximately 1,497 Indian cities.
Customer loyalty also remained a key pillar of its business. According to the report, 59 per cent of bookings in FY25 came from repeat customers, while 81 per cent of the platform’s traffic was generated through direct or organic channels, underlining the brand’s established presence in India’s increasingly competitive online travel market.
Rather than focusing solely on technology, the anniversary film highlights the people, partnerships and milestones that have shaped the company’s journey over the past two decades, reflecting the broader transformation of India’s travel ecosystem.
As Yatra enters its third decade, the company says it intends to continue investing in technology-driven services while strengthening its position across both consumer and corporate travel. In an industry where booking a trip has become as simple as tapping a screen, the film serves as a reminder of just how dramatically India’s travel habits have changed over the past 20 years.
