Get travel deals through SMS

NEW DELHI: Send SMS through your cellphone and get travel deals for domestic as

well as international tours.

Mobissimo Inc., a travel search engine, today launched its Indian site

targeting consumers in the country.

Launched in 2004, San Francisco-based Mobissimo links customers to 157

different travel sites in 30 countries.

Speaking at the launch, Beatrice Tarka, CEO, Mobissimo said that with the

launch of its site, it would provide Indian consumers with the comprehensive

selection of up-to-the minute travel deals from Indian specific online travel

agencies, major air carriers, low cost airlines, car rental and hotels.

The company has partnered with online travel agency, Makemytrip, and airline

company, SpiceJet, to explore and tap the Indian travel market.

Speaking about the Mobissimo's SMS service, Tarka said that this service

would generate a significant amount of traffic for operators and give them

access to higher income international travelers, who use their phones for more

than voice calls.

“This will also create a new advertising opportunity for mobile operators

and travel partners to exploit,” she added. The company is currently seeking

an Indian partner to offer this service.

“We also want to promote the tourism in India by providing information on

our website about India. According to survey, in 2004-05, international

passenger movements were recorded at 19.45 million while the domestic passenger

movements were 340 .09 million. These figures increased in 2005 by 24.2 per cent

in domestic and 18 per cent in international segment. This has encouraged us to

start our operations in this country,” Tarka said.

The company aims to become the number one travel search engine in India by

year-end. Tarka said that Mobissimo is the first travel search engine to

specially target India.

Stating about other search engines, she said that they cover around 15-20 per

cent of the travel market, as they do not target mainly on travel. The company

also plans to start their operations in U.K. and China.

© CyberMedia News