Cleartrip’s media spend grows by 15–20% with focus on digital, CTV and impact properties

Post-pandemic, India has been rediscovering weekend getaways. People aren’t waiting for just two vacations a year anymore—they’re taking more short trips. That’s a space Cleartrip is planning to aggressively enter. It’s the third edition of Big Billion Day (BBD)—the seasonal discount festival—for the online travel agency since it was acquired by Flipkart.

While sharing the idea behind the ‘Life mat jhelo, bas niklo’ campaign, Tavleen Bhatia, chief marketing officer, Cleartrip, says, “Life is hard for everyone—people managing multiple responsibilities, whether at work or at home. It can be frustrating, and the truest escape from that frustration is travel. But most of the time, travel feels unaffordable. If you're having a tough day at work or stuck in endless traffic, you can’t just leave because it’s expensive. So, when you get great travel deals during BBD, we’re saying don’t hesitate—just escape."

It's been six months since Bhatia was named CMO at Cleartrip. Talking about her vision for the OTA company, she says, "I’m filling some big shoes, but my biggest vision—and this is shared by the leadership—is that the OTA industry is underserved. If you look at competitors like MakeMyTrip, Agoda or Goibibo, there’s a lot of room for a challenger brand like us to win on experience. Cleartrip loyalists have always preferred us for our smooth, seamless UI (user interface), and I want to build on that."

The focus of Cleartrip’s media spends, which have grown by about 20 percent over the last year, is largely digital. “We rely on the entire Google and Meta networks. We also use connected TV and impact properties. Given our target group, we partner aggressively with key platforms like CRED. The audience fit is excellent there, but overall, we’re mainly digital. Digital allows us to achieve a full range of objectives—from reach and frequency to more bottom-funnel campaigns,” says Bhatia.

While air travel remains Cleartrip's core business, two of its newer categories—hotels and buses—are outperforming on the growth front.

"With buses, we launched a unique proposition called the Bus Pass, which came from the insight that many customers frequently use the same bus routes. We saw an opportunity to introduce a subscription model, and it's showing great results. Our bus business is growing at almost 150 percent year on year.," shares Bhatia.

Cleartrip also recently entered the train travel market and expects aggressive growth there as well. "We're also taking initial steps in packages, which is another business that will continue to grow,” she says.

Cleartrip's top cities tend to be the core eight metros, followed by top leisure destinations like Goa, Rajasthan and Kerala. Internationally, destinations like Thailand, UAE, Malaysia and Singapore perform well. "We are also seeing smaller places like Almaty growing fast, showing that people are starting to experiment with their travel destinations," reveals Bhatia.

In terms of demographics, Cleartrip’s core audience remains the urban, affluent millennial. Cleartrip is also witnessing growth in the Gen Z segment through its sister concern, Flipkart, where it operates travel as a category.

One of its key objectives is to aggressively grow its organic user base. "We aim to achieve 4-5X the growth typically seen in the industry. Another goal is to reduce reliance on paid channels like Skyscanner. While we’ll still use them tactically, we want the majority of our customers to come to us organically. This will help build stronger, more direct connections with our customers," she says, adding, “We want to scale our hotel business—we’ve made great strides in building the hotel experience, with over 300,000 properties on the platform. We’re particularly strong in premium hotels, and we want to showcase that, letting people know that Cleartrip is not just for flights.”

Another key focus is international travel. The market is growing, and Indians are flying out more. "We want to encourage people to take their first big international trips beyond Southeast Asia or the Middle East—to destinations like Europe, the US and Australia," she states.

Bhatia acknowledges that domestic growth is a little sluggish, but internationally, the industry is growing quite well. "That’s an area where we want to play a much bigger role. In terms of services and the experience, particularly with long-haul flights, the selection options we can provide are something we want to improve on and stand out for," she says.

"When it comes to hotels, the market has largely been about the strength of selection—who has the most options. I believe we need to move towards more personalisation. For example, the kind of property I’d want to stay in now that I have a four-year-old is very different from the one I would’ve chosen when I was 20 or 21," she concludes.