As more Indians travel, how tough is the competition in the online travel space?

The Indian travel market is worth $22 billion , of which the online travel agency (OTA) space constitutes $7 billion. The emergence of more low-cost carriers and 2-3 star properties has made it cheaper for people to travel , making the OTA space grow at 30%. However , I don't think many substantial players will emerge over the next few years, although there will be a lot of attempts.

How much is Expedia planning to invest in India and what is the market share in the Indian OTA space you are aiming at?

When we launched last year, we were not even among the top 10 players. But by 2011-end we were among the top 6 and by yearend we aim to be among the three largest players. We plan to invest $20 million across Asia-Pacific region, of which more than half will come to India over next three years. We invested . 25 crore in marketing last year which will increase to . 60 crore this year.

How would more investments help you wrest market share from established players like makemytrip and yatra?

Expedia is different from these two from an Indian consumer perspective as we offer products that the local players don't . We have an inventory of 145,000 hotels and 438 airlines worldwide. Other OTAs push packages saying this is the deal you get, whereas, Expedia allows the flexibility to mix and match and make your own deals. This can help travelers save about 20-25 % on their deals. Our focus will be to make the website more hassle free and user friendly.