This has been an exciting year, for the travel industry as well as for us and that means we had plenty of stories to share. Newer brands made as many headlines as the established names and there were many highs and lows.

Looking back at this year, we have created a round-up of our most popular stories to refresh the events just in case you missed them.

#1- Plenty of investments

Many travel startups got a strong start to the year 2015 with heavy investments by both foreign and domestic investors. While the investor activity slowed down near the end of year, there were some newsworthy investments earlier. We compiled an infographic of the funding raised by the popular travel startups in different categories. Read full story.

#2- Twitter lessons from AirAsia India MD & CEO

Mittu Chandilya is the young Indian at the helm of AirAsia in India. While working his plans to make India operations the largest of AirAsia subsidiaries, he also actively engages with the customers on social media to ensure quality of service and customer satisfaction. We spoke with him to learn a thing or two about using social media right for an airline brand. Read full story.

#3- Year of budget stays

Budget hotel startups were the highlight of this year. This segment saw the entry of multiple players trying to revolutionise the way we look at the low cost hotels but at which some of them picked up pace, it was clear that the OTAs won’t be happy. They were gaining the power to leverage volume to their advantage, something that wasn’t seen in the hotel space at this scale until now. Read full story.

#4- OTAs hit back

Like we said, the OTAs didn’t appreciate the idea of letting the budget hotel aggregators feed on them. Before the startups could do serious damage, some major OTAs blocked them cutting one of their major source of bookings. Read full story.

#5- TripAdvisor takes a swing

It is not at all easy for the OTAs. The hoteliers don’t like them even when they drive large share of bookings. Not only the budget hotels but their friend TripAdvisor also entered the same playground. Lower rate of commissions and better visibility were enough incentives for smaller players to skip their name and shake hands with TripAdvisor. Read full story.

#6- Conversation with Winnie Tan, Tripzilla

The Singapore based company started in 2010 and quickly went on to become the favourite of outbound travellers in the region. Along with that they are also a good example to look for on how to use content right to inspire travellers. Recently they also launched a flight metasearch engine which gives the OTAs a pass and offers only direct deals. Read full story.

#7- Stayzilla shifted focus to alternative stays

India based accommodation booking platform Stayzilla took a strong focus on homestays and other alternative stays options this year. With the message of ‘Make room for something new’, they are actively inviting the people to start adopting the fast approaching shared economy trend. Read full story.

#8- Marketing lessons by the industry experts

There is something seriously wrong in following the patterns. There is no one strategy that can fit all brands and the marketers should stop pushing the same buttons. Marketing experts like Taranjeet Singh, Country Business Head, Twitter India and Terrence Voon, Director, Marketing Activation, Singapore Tourism Board shared some strong pointers for promoting a travel brand. Read full story.

#9- British Airways social media blooper

British Airways made lot of news this year, social media campaigns, new Dreamliner place and more. But one social media mistake made the strongest headlines for them. British Airways got strong backlash on social media after they sent a predrafted tweet to cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and stayed for quite a while in the twitter trends. Read full story.

#10- Technologies for the road

Driverless cars, especially the Google ones were also in the headlines every now and then. If and when they come in, the travel industry will see major transformations. While we were waiting for these autonomous cars to arrive, we also listed down some other technologies that are coming to our cars soon. Read full story.

We have got lot of exciting things lined up for the year 2016 and for a start, we have already announced Startup Knockdown Mumbai and there will be more coming soon.

The post 2015 Round-up: Most popular stories of the year appeared first on TravHQ.

The competition between low cost carriers in India is intense. Everyone is trying to get the biggest possible share out of the increasing number of domestic airline travellers. The space is dominated by IndiGo but SpiceJet and AirAsia India are two strong players.

Sanjiv Kapoor, the COO of SpiceJet recently took an AirAsia India flight and went to Twitter to appreciate their service and hospitality. He thanked their CEO Mittu Chadilya and his team for the experience in his tweet. Mittu Chadilya also reciprocated and thanked him for the same on Twitter. Only a few days before the tweet, Sanjiv Kapoor shared photos from Paro of a Druk Airline flight he took with Mittu Chandilya.

(Read: The young Indian who pilots AirAsia: Mittu Chandilya, CEO, AirAsia India)

Fantastic warmth and hospitality on @airasiain today, felt I was on @flyspicejet! Thanks @MittuChandilya and team! pic.twitter.com/LdgHZb03pT

— Sanjiv Kapoor (@SanjivKapoor90) September 2, 2015

Thanks @SanjivKapoor90 was a pleasure having you onboard. Hope to see you again https://t.co/4eI8ba3b1H

— Mittu Chandilya (@MittuChandilya) September 2, 2015

Paro runway as viewed on breath-taking approach. With lovely crew of Druk Air and @MittuChandilya on an MMT outing. pic.twitter.com/7C6qi3W5GG

— Sanjiv Kapoor (@SanjivKapoor90) August 29, 2015

The budget airline segment in India sees a lot of activity with Airlines competing against each other on price in a bid to achieve higher load factor. The overall domestic air passenger traffic took a jump of 29 percent during July to 67.45 lakh from 52.16 lakh with SpiceJet utilising 93.4 percent of its capacity. AirAsia India was running at a relatively lower 80.2 percent load. According to IATA, this increase in passenger traffic indicates improved connectivity and will contribute to the government’s efforts to make it easier to do business in India.

It is great to see brotherhood prevailing among the players in this highly competitive space though it appears to be in contrast with what happened last year. There was some friction in the industry when AirAsia entered the Indian airline industry last year. AirAsia chief Tony Fernandes hit out at IndiGo, the biggest player in Indian airline industry, for being a bully about the entry of AirAsia in India. SpiceJet COO Sanjiv Kapoor wrote about AirAsia in internal mails. He also took to Twitter to slam the new ‘foreigner’ for changing strategy every month and claiming full planes when they were running in low 70s. We have seen international carriers to get into spats openly but this was something new for the Indian market.

Interesting to see the new entrant foreign airline change strategy every month and claim full planes when loads in the low 70s…

— Sanjiv Kapoor (@SanjivKapoor90) September 26, 2014

Low cost Airlines like SpiceJet and AirAsia India have been trying to lure passengers this year by offering very attractive flight deals. SpiceJet hosted flash sale for airline tickets earlier this year which was something new for the industry while AirAsia offered flight tickets across multiple routes starting at INR 999. The changing relations between these two low cost carriers could indicate good times ahead for the Indian aviation industry.

Featured image: SpiceJet by rapidtravelchai/ CC BY 2.0

The post It appears to be an everyday Tweet by Spicejet COO, but there’s something special about it appeared first on TravHQ.

His appointment as CEO was announced in a slightly unconventional style on Twitter. Born in Chennai, the young CEO of AirAsia has picked up variety of challenging management roles in the past. An MBA from INSEAD, he was one of the youngest general managers at Ingersoll Rand and then head of Egon Zehnder’s Asia-Pacific operations. After being appointed the CEO of AirAsia India, he is working up the plans to make India operations the largest of AirAsia subsidiaries. In addition to his role as CEO, he was recently chosen to become the Managing Director and Tony Fernandes announced it on Twitter.

Mittu Chandilya, CEO & MD, AirAsia India

While many airlines try to control the social media communication, AirAsia India and their young CEO embrace various social platforms. They have been leveraging Twitter to communicate better with their passengers and ensure that the guests aren’t unheard. We got a chance to have a conversation with Mittu Chandilya about the importance of Twitter in their industry and how he personally uses the platform. Here is an excerpt from the conversation.

You normally tweet when __________

I have always been on social media. It is an extension of my personality. So I am open, direct and genuine in that medium as I am in my daily employee, customer or shareholder engagements. It is a combination of both my professional views and my personal life as I am more than a CEO of a company primarily like most folks there I am person with distinct views, experiences and a voice. So Twitter is an extension of my normal personality. Most leaders are getting into the use of social media however I know there is a lot of skeptical and apprehensions there on what to share or not to. I may be different in that sense.

The airline industry is a very sensitive one when it comes to the usage of Twitter. On many occasions, they have been questioned for information accuracy during crisis communication. Your thoughts?

Anytime you are dealing with safety and security and lives of people it’s not something you take lightly. Accuracy of information is critical however speed to respond and communicate is equally important. It is not meant to be PR but rather direct communication. Often times Airlines tend to try and manage the communication. There are different departments and mediums for that. Social media is to be their wish your guests/ passengers and listen and be heard. It is an ecosystem where you are one participant. This needs to be understood and adopted.

On the flip side, There can also be a lot of noise/ chatter out there in social media which you have to respond to but need to quickly sort through to figure out what is genuine and what is just noise. Just like Big Data mining through to get good data is critical. In Our Customer service channels we have had some folks who know we are active on social media and so just think screaming on an issue again and again while copying others legitimises their case. In most cases it works in the contrary and yet we are sensitive about not putting personal information of our guest out there and sorting through noise firmly and quickly.

Do you have an internal corporate communications team that handles social media channels such as Twitter or you work with an agency partner?

Our social media team consists of one person handling our official Twitter and Facebook accounts and they work closely with me. I handle my accounts personally. We have recently taken an agency to help with creatives and broader strategy but access to our handle and execution is still done by our one person team.

Does your team receive any twitter management lessons from the global team at AirAsia?

No we don’t. We are fairly entrepreneurial both here in India as well as in the Group; so don’t have training setups or formal lessons. We learn as we go and I spend a lot of time with our social media, customer service and marketing teams.

Has there been one incident where you felt you could have handle the issue better? Do you personally get involved with issue resolution (Customer queries on Twitter)?

I believe in trying to reply to everyone that reaches out to me on Twitter. However on Customer/ Guest Service queries when tweeted to me I ensure our team picks it up immediately and replies. I make it is point not to answer those directly from my handle. We have professionals who are in the system to handle that and I believe that is the appropriate channel and way to handle that. Customer questions and comments I usually engage myself.

Someone whom you know is doing a great job on Twitter _____

Frankly a lot of leaders are getting into twitter and a lot of folks are using it better and teaching us the way. My favourites just in terms of breaking conventions and creating engagement would be Richard Branson, Our Honourable PM Narendra Modi, Anand Mahindra, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and of course Tony Fernandes.

That one memorable tweet which you would like to share with TravHQ is _________

There have been a few good ones and memorable; however I remember Tony’s tweet on 4th Mar 2013 hidden announcement on my initial appointment because of the buzz it created and speculation it followed:

“I have selected our CEO for Airasia India. Very smart boy from the south, madras. An amazing CV. Will impress all that meet. A real winner. That will bring new meaning to competition.”

And its follow up reveal on 14th May 2013:

“Mittu is coming home to change Indian travel and make it affordable for all Indians to fly”

Because it appropriately captured my own precise reason for choosing this role and the expectations set for me by our board.

TravHQ team congratulates Mittu Chandilya for his appointment as MD of AirAsia India and wishes him good luck for the way ahead. You can find him on Twitter here.

(Featured image: “AirAsiaA320″ by Jyi1693 at en.wikipedia. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons)

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