Top Eight Online Travel Startups
Friday, July 25, 2008
8 comments
We have covered online travel extensively over the last couple of years, beginning with the in-depth analysis, Web 3.0 and Online Travel. Here is an overview of the online travel startups to watch:
* Kayak: Vertical search engine; acquired top competitor Sidestep.
* Mobissimo: Competitor to Kayak focused on international travel.
* Travel Ad Network: Vertical ad network for online travel sites.
* UpTake: Semantic search engine for travel.
* Groople: Group travel site.
* Yatra: India’s #1 online travel agency; has a partnership with Reliance.
* Cleartrip: India’s #2 online travel agency. Kleiner investment.
* Makemytrip: India’s #3 online travel agency. Also has physical travel booking kiosks.
Do you have any to add to this list?
Friend of mine (and MIT alum) recently launched Zicasso
http://www.zicasso.com
They’re ‘Lending Tree-style’ model for slightly more complex trips seems to be different than most other sites out there
Triphub.com is also a newer travel website.. helps to plan group trips
One to definitely not miss is:
http://www.tripit.com/
Very helpful in organizing a trip and coordinating itineraries.
Wont Indian railways online booking website
http://www.indianrail.gov.in/ qualify as OTA ‘startup’? As per Alexa, it beats Yatra by factor of 3 or 4.
I recommend a new travel homepage:
http://www.triptouch.com
Lots of travel information and services for many worldwide destinations.
I’m clearly biased but you should check out PlanetEye (www.planeteye.com), a travel planning service that combines geotagged photographs, mapping technology and extensive travel content from in-house writers and a growing number of professional sources.
Not to miss Travelomate
http://travelomate.com
who have used the multi-lingual approach to help people speaking different languages to India. I think thats something which is still missing except obviously travelocity is already doing this.
Travel Mashery & Travel 2.0 Portal Builder for Online B2B Market