Mumbai, May 3: Sudhakara Reddy, chairman of Sudsun Housing Development anddirector of Oriental Hotels, has launched Indianonlinetravel.com, a travelportal with primary focus on foreign tourists. The portal will cover 130destinations in the country and provide search engines to 3,000 hotels byJune-end. The e-commerce site will tie up with 24 travel agents. "We will beoffering 35 pilgrimage destinations besides beach resorts and other touristspots," Reddy said.Indiaonlinetravel.com will provide an exclusive search engine for travelclassifieds where small and medium members of the travel business canadvertise. This will help travellers to select their travel requirements."We are the only travel site to offer such a facility," Reddy said.
The portal plans to have exclusive tie ups with domestic and internationalairlines to offer special deals to those booking through the site, he added.Car rental arrangements can also be made on the Net. Reddy, who has beenclosely associated with the Taj Group of Hotels for 25 years, saidIndiaonlinetravel.com will run a fortnightly e-magazine on travel andtourism. The magazine will be available exclusively to subscribers who willbe able to view it after registration. The portal will also provide e-cardfacilities for those who want to send picture postcards home to family andfriends. "Our site has a library of 500 cards to choose from. The facilityis restricted to registered users," Reddy said.
The revenue stream will come from tie-ups and associates who would bepotential advertisers besides providing commission. The portal has travelnews, tips and quiz to make it interactive.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.