ibibo Group aims over 2-fold jump in sales this fiscal

Betting big on hotels business segment, online travel services provider ibibo Group is looking to more than double the value of transactions this fiscal through its various sites. The group, which owns portals like Goibibo.Com and redBus.In among others, currently clocks transactions worth over Rs 1,000 crore per month. "We are looking at triple digit percentage growth for FY16 (in terms of value of transactions) and the biggest catalyst for this is our hotels business," ibibo Group Founder and Chief Executive Officer Ashish Kashyap told PTI. On a monthly basis around 32 lakh people buy from the group's platform that includes primarily hotels, air and bus tickets, he added. "In fiscal year 2014-15, the overall growth has been around 90 percent over the previous year, with hotels business being the main driver with this business growing over five times," Kashyap added. When asked which vertical contributed the most in terms of sales value, Kashyap said: "At present air tickets is approximately 50 percent of our sales but the fastest growth segment is hotels followed by the bus segment." Elaborating on the company's operations, he said: "Our focus is to organise accommodation, transportation and to connect it to travellers." Kashyap said the group is "open to both organic and inorganic" options for its future expansion." South Africa-based Naspers is the principal owner in the ibibo Group, a diversified travel group founded by Kashyap in 2007.