Hyderabad-headquartered planetwildlife.com, a fully integrated wildlife travel portal, is planning to raise $ 5 million (Rs 22.29 crore) from private equity players this financial year as per a report in Business Standard by Itishree Samal

“We are in discussions with a few private equity players to raise the money before March 2012. It would be used to ramp up our website, add new revenue models, such as e-shop, and to explore acquisition opportunities,” Mytri Indukuru, director and chief executive of planetwildlife.com, said.

The portal was initiated by three promoters mainly to cater to the niche wildlife tourism segment in August 2010. With an initial funding of Rs 5 crore from Angel Investors, it commenced commercial operation in January this year, she said.

Globally, the market size for the wildlife tourism is $22 billion, which is growing at 7 per cent year-on-year, according to the ‘Tourism Highlights – 2010 edition’ published by UNWTO (World Tourism Organisation), an agency of the United Nations and a global forum for tourism policy related issues. “Half of the international tourism expenditure is typically on leisure and recreation, which is $ 434 billion, as per the 2009 data. Of this, 5 per cent goes towards the wildlife travel segment,” she added. The sector is relatively new in India.

The country is seeing growth in the outbound tourists to African countries and Polar destinations (both South and North pole). For the domestic and inbound tourists, places like Rajasthan, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and North Eastern regions are the most preferred, she said. The portal is focusing on the outbound market. “With the establishment of our offices in China and the UK, we expect substantial inbound traffic,” she added. The average trip is between 5 and20 days, and the package ranges between Rs 30,000 and Rs 3 lakh (which includes all expenses).

Planetwildlife plans to open branches in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore by 2013. It recorded sales revenue of Rs 1 crore in the first quarter this year, and expects to touch Rs 12-15 crore by the end of March 2012, she said.