Competitive Analysis of Indian Tourism Aggregators Using Multi-Criteria Analytic Hierarchy Process

• Published in: International journal of marketing and business communication Vol. 7; no. 3; p. 10
• Main Authors: Dash, Mihir, Sharma, Kshitiz
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New Delhi Publishing India Group 01.07.2018
• Subjects: Adventure tourism; Hierarchies; Tourism
• ISSN: 2277-484X

Tourism has been a major social phenomenon in societies all over the world. It is driven by the human desire for new experiences, and the desire to be educated and entertained. The spread of education and the technological improvements in communication have strengthened the basic human thirst for new knowledge and experience and have fostered a desire to know more about different parts of the world. Tourism has been revolutionised with the emergence of tourism aggregators, i.e. web-based portals that provide travellers with services such as travel, accommodation, and tour planning and booking. The tourism aggregators have reduced information search costs, and have increased the awareness of tourists of potential destinations. This has enabled some innovative trends in tourism, including eco-tourism, adventure tourism, heritage tourism, medical tourism, pilgrimage tourism, and so on. The objective of the study is to compare the competitiveness of Indian tourism aggregators using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). AHP is a technique that is used to structure multi-criteria decisions, allowing both quantitative and qualitative comparisons between alternatives (Saaty and Forman, 1992; Saaty, 2008). The criteria used for the study include price, process, ease of access, and customer service. The tourism aggregators selected for the study include Yatra, Makemytrip, Goibibo, Cleartrip, Expedia, and Kuoni-SOTC.