New Delhi: The Outlook Group announced the launch of its first vortal, outlooktraveller.com here on Monday. Also, to complement the travel portals' Net-strategy, the group will launch a print magazine Outlook Traveller in January 2001. Subsequently, the group will also launch a vertical on personal finance and investment -iinvestor.com-on August 25, 2000. The investor portal is also expected to incorporate e-broking services by the end of November 2000. Said Maheshwer Peri, chief operating officer, Outlook Traveller.com: "The Outlook group will extend its strategy of targeting niches in the print medium to the dotcom arena as well." Without disclosing details of the investments, Peri said that the travel portal is expected to break-even by April 2001 with content-selling accounting for over 40 per cent of its revenues.According to Goldman Sachs, the Indian travel market is estimated to grow to Rs 13,000 crore over the next three years from Rs 9,000 crore now. Positioned to be a travel hub and vacation planner, outlooktraveller.com has kicked off a `Go Places, Go Wild, Go Under' promotional campaign to attain a registration base of 50,000 users in the first three months. Says Peri, "By March, 2001, we'll have merchant establishments and upscale, life style-oriented consumers seeking us." Similarly for Outlook Traveller magazine, it is expecting a circulation of 60,000 in the first year. To boost the travel portal's presence, Outlook has launched a print ad burst across English publications. Handled by Montage, the six-part campaign with a listing of eight wild life destinations will entice the audience to sample the site.
The travel site is expected to shortlist four horizontals and ISPs for content selling in next couple of months. The travel portal has signed with 42 hotels, especially three and five star establishments, in 50 destinations with an exclusive rate, which is 25 to 30 per cent less than the rack rate. "To drive volumes, we'll pass on these gains to consumers," says Peri. The travel portal has also created an exclusive database of motor coaches (car rental companies and fleet operators) in 85 cities to provide value-for-money services. Says Peri, "we'll cover top 200 cities by March 2001." For airline ticketing information, the travel site has tied up with Amadeus for a year and for logistics support First Travel Management Company, (with 35 offices nationwide). It has also tied-with the US-based Acuweather to track 1,300 destinations, including 300 in India.
Beginning with six foreign destinations, including Malaysia, Vienna and Yasmit Valley (US), the portal will specialise in developing theme-based destinations like Rishikesh for river rafting, and Malaysia for shopping. The site has six categories now -adventures, wildlife, circuit, celebrity travel, cruise and special experience (like spa)-which will be increased to by March 15, 2001.
Following the launch of Outlook magazine in October 1995, Rajan Raheja-promoted Hathway Investments Ltd brought out Intelligent Investor, a personal finance magazine, in July 1998. Outlook sells 11.2 million copies a year with a readership of 1.5 million, while Intelligent Investor sells 1 lakh copies every fortnight.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.