Omri Morgenshtern travel tips

International leisure flight bookings from India have increased by 40 percent for trips between June and August compared to the same period in 2022, according to travel solutions provider RateGain. In its latest Pulse report powered by Adara, RateGain said this represents the highest level of outbound leisure flight bookings from India in the post-Covid years, even as demand is still 15-20 percent lower than highs in 2019.

From its early days, Agoda has today evolved into a major player in the online travel space in Asia. Today, the online travel company is known for its advanced tech and three people have been an integral part of that journey: CEO Omri Morgenshtern, Chief Technology Officer Idan Zalzberg and Chief Product Officer Ittai Chorev.

Omri Morgenshtern, CEO of Agoda, is confident the online travel agency can rapidly expand across India but says it needs to work even harder on “localization” efforts to do so. For Morgenshtern, localization means everything from more varied payment options, language options, and better ground support for customers facing problems.

Taylor Swift may be singing, “You Need to Calm Down,” but fans in Asia aren’t listening. The singer’s highly anticipated Singapore tour in March is stirring up a travel storm in Southeast Asia. 

In the latest episode of the Skift India Travel Podcast, Krishna Rathi, country director of Agoda in India, in conversation with Skift Asia Editor Peden Doma Bhutia, talks about the online travel company’s growing focus on India. Agoda launched its first-ever television commercial in India last week. Echoing Agoda CEO Omri Morgenshtern’s thoughts, Rathi notes that there’s a strong alignment between Agoda’s core values and the Indian market. 

India could rank among the top three markets for outbound travel in the coming years, according to Omri Morgenshtern, CEO of online travel platform Agoda said while speaking to media in India during his recent visit to the country. Indian travellers are increasingly becoming more important to many countries and will become second to China in terms of spending in Asia, he said. An earlier Skift article had reported how the time is ripe for India — which already ticks most of the boxes as a suitable candidate to take over from China as the largest travel source market — to enter the dragon’s space. In India, online travel booking is growing at a faster pace after the pandemic in comparison to other global markets, outpacing the Asia Pacific market, said Morgenshtern. The total transaction value in travel almost hit pre-Covid levels in 2022. “Since 2019, the rank of importance of Indian tourists for Thailand for example has risen from 10th to 6th. I expect it to become more important in the coming years, not only to Thailand but to many countries in APAC,” he added. Morgenshtern also sees a lot of potential for inbound tourism in India. While India’s inbound is growing slower than outbound travel, he believes it is going to see fast growth in the coming years.

Overseas travel bookings from mainland China are currently at just over half of pre-pandemic levels but are on course to return to the 2019 numbers by the end of this year or early 2024, the head of online travel agency Agoda said on Thursday.

India’s outbound tourism is expected to reach $44.7 billion by 2032, according to a report titled ‘Unlock the Potential: A Look into Outbound Tourism’ by Nangia Andersen, in association with the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The report also highlighted the recommendations for growing the future of outbound tourism, which include tax rebates, collaboration with destinations and airlines, streamlining visa processes, among other ideas.

Although Skift reported in its recently released State of Travel 2023 report that international travel in most global regions still trails 2019 levels, there is gradual progress. International travel has been boosted in recent years in part by a significant increase in destinations providing visitors visa-free access.