Season's Greetings from iXiGO !

A tale of two business models ..

Online Travel Agents have been in the news quite a bit this month. Also, our partnership with TravelGuru and the agency-airline tussle for commissions has given a lot of press to the two business models of agency and search.

In a series of invigorating articles, VC Circle (Online Travel Agents: Caught in Turbulence), WATBlog (The Indian OTA Nosedive - Where is the value beyond the ticket?) and TravelBizMonitor (OTAs are they getting it right?) have examined the challenges facing the OTA business model as of today, and what the future holds for them.

We think that the long-term future of the online travel industry in India (including OTAs) is still bright, although some retweaks to their business model and some product innovation and creative partnerships can make them look a lot less vulnerable to bloggers and media.

In January 2009, we will analyze the differences in business models and value-adds of an OTA vs. a travel search engine to see where they have similarities and where they differ in approaches to the same problem.

Cheers,
The iXiGO Team

Jet agrees to pay 3% commission to Travel Agents

In continuation to our coverage of the zero-commissions / transaction fee tussle ongoing in airline distribution, here is the latest.

Business Standard, The Economic Times, LiveMint and Financial Express are all reporting that Jet Airways has given in to the travel agents' demand of moving back to the commission model. According to the reports, Jet Airways will now pay travel agents 3% commission on total fare, as compared to 5% commission on base fare earlier. This might make the actual commission higher than before in some cases !

Kingfisher Airlines is still mulling on when it will move back to the commissions model, and if it does, what %age commission will it offer travel agents. As for the national carrier Air India, it does seem inclined to continue the zero-commissions regime.

We at iXiGO have always believed that travel agents are an integral part of the travel ecosystem - indeed they are still experts at selling high involvement products and acting as travel consultants for all the requirements of a traveler. The survivability of travel agents who were heavily dependant on airline ticketing for their earnings was threatened under a zero-commission regime. This current move is definitely reassuring for their business continuity . Upto 80% of airline bookings come from travel agents, and until that %age balance of direct bookings and indirect bookings does not change, it will be tough to make drastic changes in incentive structures. Our own thoughts are that the latest compromise is a short-term one, and if you are a small travel agent, you definitely need to diversify away from the flights business or hook up with a consolidator with bigger buying power with airlines for your customers' fulfilment.

More than anything else, the bold step of taking commissions to zero is an audacious signal from the airlines to intermediaries that what has happened elsewhere in the world can also happen in India, and we need to be prepared for it. Small/Mid-sized Travel Agents need to look at the time ahead as a "grace period" from airlines to rework their business models and diversify into richer products, because it is just a question of time and the change in ratio of %age of bookings done direct on airlines vs. agents that will determine when the airlines will push zero commissions once again.

Cheers,
The iXiGO Team

PS: Noteworthy is the fact that JetLite will continue on its model of paying no commissions and adding a transaction fee for agents to charge their customers, just like other LCCs !

Jet Airways still available on iXiGO.com !

As a true commitment of comprehensiveness, transparency and neutrality, iXiGO.com wants to reiterate to iXiGOers that we will continue to display and allow bookings on Jet Airways, just like we always do !

The media is reporting that travel agents across the country have stopped selling Jet Airways and JetLite airline tickets effective from today, after they arrived at this conclusion as a way to protest against the zero commission regime and the removal of transaction fees on airline sites, a smart move that resulted in cheapest fares available on the airline's own website and on airline-friendly channels such as iXiGO.

Not publicized much in media, but verified by us on their sites, Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) in India have also stopped displaying and selling these airlines, leading to a less comprehensive product. Surprisingly, they do not tell their consumers about this on their result page or home page either!

This is a serious issue. If the Travel Agents really want a healthy ecosystem and long-term survival and growth of airlines in India, they will need to find innovative business models and partnerships to enable it for consumers. Knee-jerk reactions are only short-term solutions.

Here's one to smart and savvy consumers who will only find this as another reason to shift away from travel agents onto travel search engines, airline websites and more transparent and comprehensive sources of information.

Travel Agents - We feel bad for you. Airlines - We are with you !

Love,
The iXiGO Team

PS: Jet Airways is still available on iXiGO, and so is Kingfisher, and so is Air India, just like all the other airlines in India.

Air travel in India: The road ahead

For those of you who have kept abreast with the recent spat between the airlines and travel agents, the latest twist in the tale would have been highly amusing. However, we @ iXiGO always knew this was bound to happen sooner or later – why? Because it made eminent economic sense for the airlines. Here we recount the turn of events for the benefit of those readers who are still not clear about the zero commission model.

Jul 20 – Airlines float a circular that they would be moving to a zero commission model from Nov 08

Nov 1 – Travel agents decide to boycott the airlines that want to stop the commissions (notably Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher).

Nov 9 – Airlines and Travel Agents meet and decide to levy a transaction fee for every ticket sold by the travel agent. It is decided that the fee would be Rs. 350 for domestic economy class), Rs. 500 for the domestic business class and would vary between Rs. 1200 and Rs. 10,000 for various classes in the international segment. It is also decided that the airlines would maintain price parity between their own (offices and website) and the travel agency channels. [Note: This did not make any economic sense for the airline as this also increased the overall fare, even on their own websites]. While Air India and Jet implement this after some hesitation, Kingfisher refuses to play ball and does not introduce the transaction fee on its website, thus making its website fare the best alternative for the end customer to purchase from. Agents threaten to boycott Kingfisher but it refuses to budge.

Nov 21 – Travel agents meet and ask the airlines to roll-back the transaction fee and move to commission model once again. Airlines oblige but refuse to move back to commissions.

Now, let’s analyze why this model failed to work. Well, primarily there are six reasons:

1. Airlines wish to eliminate the commission based agency model: Airlines used to pay commissions to travel agents for each ticket sold by them. This led to differentiated prices for the same ticket from different travel agencies. This also added a distribution cost for the airlines which was ultimately borne by the customers. Airlines developed their own websites to reduce this burn and attract direct customers, but still the customers ended up buying from travel agencies due to their ignorance and the ease with which one could purchase tickets from an agent.

2. Airlines decided to have price parity on their own selling channel: In Game Theory parlance, this was unstable equilibrium, any one player not playing ball would have stood to gain a lot from following a policy of differentiated pricing, both against the agents (because more customers of that airline would purchase directly from the airline) as well as against their competitors who maintained price parity (because they would either be forced out of their market share because of higher prices, or if they decided to match the prices of the airline going solo, would have to settle for lower margins!)

3. System of “Pay Transaction Fee Now, Get Paid Later” followed by airlines: The transaction fee went to the airline and was settled with the respective agents after a month. This system robbed the agents of the valuable ‘float’, essentially hiking their working capital and increasing their cost of operations.

4. Airline action – Pro customers: This has already happened in the West and is now penetrating the Indian skies. Since airlines own the inventory, they would like to offer the "best buy" option on their direct sales channels (airline website being more close to the customers). Ideally airlines wish to have direct contact with their end customers and agents- if you take its literal definition, they should earn on the service they provide to their customers and term it ‘Service fee’ or ‘management fee’. In case customers wish to buy their air tickets from travel agents, they would pay this service fee / management fee; else customers can avoid this service fee by transacting directly on airline website. In order to make the purchase among different airlines, searching for the best available fares across multiple airline websites would be cumbersome. This is where Travel Search engine (TSE), iXiGO.com plays a vital role, in searching and comparing website fares of respective airlines. Once the customer fine tunes his search on iXiGO.com and decides to book, he is redirected to the chosen airline website results / check out page for transacting with the airline. This not only helps airlines boost their online sales but also provides an added value to end traveler who would otherwise have spent hours searching before finding the best fare / most convenient timings across all airlines. It would happen sometimes that by the time the customer decides which seat to book for, the seat would be lost.

5. Opposition from Regulatory Bodies and Government: Airlines, especially the foreign ones are afraid of being accused of “acting in concert” against consumer interest (as jacked up prices would hurt consumers). There is pressure from the Indian government as well to lower prices and spur demand to counter recessionary pressures.

6. Last, but not the least, there is opposition from consumers who would like to make use of more efficient channels to purchase air tickets.

Terrorist attacks in Mumbai; Helpline numbers posted here

If you have read or watched the news, you'll see one of the greatest horrors that India, and more specifically the city of Mumbai, is facing. The terrorist attack that began last night in it's wake has taken the death toll to 103 people with 287 injured according to CNN-IBN.

It is in these times of terror that we must stay united and lend all help we can to those in need. Everyone in Mumbai, families and friends, can really do with that extra hand. Pinstorm has put up a help page that has the relevant contact information and numbers to call for help. We have posted that information here as well.

BMC Disaster Management Cell, Emmanuel: 180, +91 22 22694725
J J Hospital Blood Bank: Contact Person : Dr.Ganesh , Dr.Nair -- 022 - 23739400
Bombay Hospital: Contact Person : Ms.Purohit -- 22067676 extn 216
Cama Hospital Blood Bank : 022-22611648
St. George Hospital Direct Blood Bank: Contact Person: Tarun -- 022 – 22620344
US State Dept Call Center for Americans 1-888-407-4747
Taj Hotel - 022-66574322, 022-66574372, 1800 111 825;
Trident Hotel - 022-23890606 20
Oberoi Hotels enquiry no's: +91981095688, 022-23890606, 022-23890505
J J Hospital Blood Bank: Contact Person : Dr.Ganesh , Dr.Nair -- 022 - 23739400
Bombay Hospital: Contact Person : Ms.Purohit -- 22067676 extn 216
Cama Hospital Blood Bank : 022-22611648
St. George Hospital Direct Blood Bank: Contact Person: Tarun -- 022 – 22620344
Taj Hotel - 022-66574322, 022-66574372, 1800 111 825;
Trident Hotel - 022-23890606 20

For Blood Donors
Call 922 222 1947 and tell them you want to donate blood. They'll get back to you when someone needs it OR Send an sms - type BLOOD and send it to 96000 97000, donor will call up for donation

More comprehensive information can be got at their page. If you are online, you can additionally access this page on Twitter, for up to date tweets from various people watching the news as well.
Breaking news is also posted live on this page (which doesn't require refreshing). A quick round up of the events so far is also posted on this blog for those unaware of the situation. Google news is updating their headlines as well and the website Mahalo has updated information and videos as well. A photographer Vinu has posted pics of the terrorist attack on his flickr page.

To the families affected by the Mumbai attack, we at iXiGO, express our solidarity and you have our prayers constantly to get through this tumultuous time. The perpetrators want us to be afraid and stop our regular way of living life, stop going to office, start feeling afraid, but India will stay resilient and bounce back! Just like our nation has done for centuries, we stay united as a country and our prayers are there for the people in Mumbai.

iXiGO partners with Travel Guru; enables shift from agency to search

It gives us great pride today to announce a very important, and exemplary, partnership.

iXiGO has partnered with TravelGuru to empower their flight search/booking with our travel engine. What this means is essentially all of TravelGuru's searches will be powered by the fast, smart and friendly search engine that iXiGO is known for.

This is the first time anywhere in the world, that an Online Travel Agency (OTA for short) has piggybacked on a travel search engine to enable searching and booking of airline tickets from its site. This is a defining moment because it shows that search-based models can potentially displace and disrupt agency-models. This not only boosts the growing dominance of the travel search model, but also shows that increasingly OTAs and travel search engines will need to work together to deliver higher value to both travel suppliers and their customers.

It's time to emphasize the three-pronged savings that travel providers (airlines), customers and travel agents can maximise by embracing the travel search model.

This model is very important to the airlines during a recession. Travel providers (airlines) have to find an innovative way to cut their costs and also make sure their distribution and marketing channels can drive qualified bookings at a low per-booking spend. This would require them to realign their internet web strategy in order to incentivize direct-online vs. intermediaries. iXiGO plays a dominant role in this endeavor in redirecting qualified traffic to the airline's own website and letting them own the customers directly. This eliminates the cost of maintaining a middle man to handle transactions, whether that is a GDS or a travel agent. It also ensures that the airline develops recall and stickiness for its own website for the future.

This would certainly be cheaper to the customers as well, who would have otherwise been forced to pay a service fee or transaction fee which travel agents levy on top of fares that the airlines charge. Since commissions are no more paid from November, in order to be profitable, agencies did not have any choice but to charge their customers this fee in order to make a profitable transaction. With the search model, travel agents can be sure of charging their customers the lowest possible fares while allowing them to retain a direct relationship with the airline in order to gain from the better and more direct customer service.

And last but not the least, online travel agents such as TravelGuru can now embrace the search model and drastically reduce operationally intensive processes and costs - thereby having a leaner operation without requiring customer service for flights - a really sensible move for them to maximize their profits.

TravelGuru has taken the bold step of creating the first hybrid model in India of offering travel search to their consumers and iXiGO is proud to be the leader in the industry enabling this service.

If you are an online travel agent who wishes to move to the search model, write to us today !

Was Leonardo da Vinci the first to fly?

You must have heard of the Wright brothers, Oliver and Wilbur, right? Did you know that the 1902 glider the brothers had developed was actually the first fully controlled heavier-than-air craft? Historians have been debating which machine had the larger impact on flying - the glider that was built before or the biplane that was later made famous in their well publicized December 1903 run. The Wright brothers had actually filed a patent for their glider calling it the "Flying Machine". A picture of their first flight is posted below.

photo courtesy: wright-house.com

What many people aren't aware of, however, are the drawings by the famous Leonardo da Vinci in which he has detailed bat like wings and his concepts for flight. This was well over 3 centuries before the Wright brothers. Many people claim he might actually have had a great design at hand with his detailed diagrams of both a cockpit and wing structure. The problem with his design was that it was too heavy to actually lift off. Many claim that his painting "Bird's eye view of a landscape" was actually one modeled on his flight attempt. He had ascended but wasn't able to stay on for too long, landing heavily and cracking his ribs, but it seems he did attempt the first flight. You can read about that story detailed here. Here are some of his diagrams courtesy of his notes on making gliders both inspired by imitating the dinosaurs and adding his own theory of flight and mechanics.



Fascinating isn't it? What if this were true? And our first flying man was actually Leonardo da Vinci? Picture courtesies: Drawings of Leonardo

Are you on our community pages yet?

If you haven't caught on to the iXiGO Revolution, then it's not too late, get your self registered as a fan on Facebook and Orkut now. Here's our Facebook fan page and our Orkut community page.

We love feedback and respond enthusiastically and personally. So if you have any comments, suggestions or even brickbats let us know at feedback[at]ixigo[dot]com today!

5 things foreigners should keep in mind while visiting India

If you are a foreigner and are planning a trip to India, then it would be a good idea to read some of our tips to help you on your next trip here. India is a multifaceted, multilingual and multiethnic land. To travel around here, it's necessary that certain cultures of the land be followed.

Get your proper vaccination before you come here
Leave alone the harsh weathers that one faces while traveling the depths of India, one of the things that foreigners must definitely keep in mind is to get their shots before they arrive. While this is mandatory in certain countries, it's overlooked at times. The reasons are two: The water and the air. Both are highly harsh for anyone who hasn't already lived here for a while and waterborne diseases are far more frequent. So plan this ahead and get your regular visit to the doctor done before.

Plan your trip to India
India is a land that many Indians need more than a year to explore. If you are here on a trip of one week (too less) , one month (a little better) or one year (just about enough) you should have chartered your trips across. iXiGO gives you some of the best rates for you to check through various sectors and also offers you some great prices on hotel, lodging and bus travel as well. Like the saying goes, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

Bargaining is good and necessary
This is a little secret no one will admit neither deny that is very valuable. The minute shop keepers sense you are not from this land, the price seems to multiply on non marked goods. Always keep in mind that bargaining for prices is required and you might be surprised with some of the discounts that you can get if you actually made that effort to push for a cheaper price. It is an Indian culture to bargain and most often people don't do it because they are too shy or think it's impolite.

Don't wear slippers into the household unless the owner already has it on
Indians generally consider it a disrespect if you are going to trod into their houses with your boots filled with slush, dirt and mud right into the living room. They spend a lot of time cleaning and that is typically why people almost always ask you to leave your slippers outside. This doesn't apply to the hotels though, you are free to wear anything there, and if you visit the bathroom, get yourself a pair of bathroom slippers. They are cheap and effective.

When we say spicy, we mean REALLY spicy
Indians are known to have a tongue that can handle the spices well. A lot of the foreign food fall short when matched with the palette of the Indian spices. So keep in mind, that whenever you ask for food you should mention that it shouldn't be too spicy, because handling the effects can be rather stressful. Even if you down a bucket of water.

Have you got any tips or seeing things that you should let people know about? Write it and let us know in the comments!

Book your International Hotels here!

5 must see places in Nainital

Nainital is situated at an altitude of 1,938 mtrs. Besides being one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country, the center of attraction is the Nainital Lake and the fun going activities namely Yachting, Kayaking, Canoing and Boating. If you are a wild child and love hitting the water without necessarily being Aquarius, then this is a place you want to plan your next vacation to. Here we list some of the top places of interest in Nainital which you must go through.

iXiGO’s must visit places in Nainital

The Naini Lake

Located at the center of Nainital is the beautiful lake called Naini. Scenic beauty is abundant and the place is especially a sight to behold at nights with the various lamps and street lighting. The lake offers various activities for the adventurous. Water sports such as boating, kayaking and even rowing (for the mild ones) are available. Here’s a fact that you must know on your next quiz about Nainital. The bridge connecting the two ends of the lake from north to south is called The Danth. The uniqueness of the place is that it is the only post office in the world to be situated on a lake bridge. Along with this also a bus station, taxi stand and a railway reservation counter on the lake bridge. There are shopping centers, marts, stores and all sorts of luxury shops laid around as well.

The Nainital Zoo

About a kilometer from the bus stand is the Govind Ballagh Pant High Altitude Zoo (long name!). The host of animals for one’s viewing range from Monkeys, Himalayan black bears to the canine family of Leopards, Siberian Tigers, Wolves and hill foxes. To list all the animals would take a while, but one should definitely not miss out on this spot in their next trip. The Zoo, however, remains closed on all Mondays and national holidays, so make sure you incorporate that into your next trip.

The Aerial Ropeway

One reason to be there would be the name itself. The Ropeway sounds like a place out of a movie. It is one of the most famous attractions of Nainital. The ropeway connects the Snow view point which is at an altitude of 2270 meters to the Nainital new flats. There are 2 trolleys to carry passengers. This is a lovely journey that’s pretty high up and takes around 15 minutes to cover. It is generally open between 10 am and 4 pm.

The Snow View

This is one of the destinations that are accessed by the ropeway which is located about 2.5 kms from the main township area. The peak is also connected by a road in case you wish to skip the ropeway (don’t!). Snow view gives one a fresh look from the top of a mountain blanketed in ice. This is a scene that is often famous for its movie shootings as well.

The Naina Peak or China Peak

Naina peak is the highest peak of the town. Located at an altitude of 2611 mts, it is also at a distance of 6 Kms from the town .From here one can view the peaks of the Himalayas and get a bird eye view of the city in whole. It is recommended to grab a pair of binoculars and view the panaromic breath taking scene. Horse riding is pretty popular here as well.

We said 5, but there’s a place that you should not miss out at Nainital is the

Hanuman Garhi: It is around 3.5 Kms away from the bus stop and is a popular religious spot (especially for Hindus). One can go to Hanuman Garhi by taxi, bus or even on foot from Nainital .It has a temple complex presiding deity being Lord Hanuman besides Ram and Shiva. It was built around 1950.

So have you been to any of these places? What did you think of them? Share it with your comments below!

Indian domestic airflights statistics; Jet airways on top

Picture courtesy: Airbus

The center for Asia Pacific navigation recently posted an in depth analysis covering the Indian domestic airlines, airport sectors including latest traffic and certain financial reports. Here are some interesting figures noted below.

The total passengers carried by domestic airlines in the month of Oct-08 was 3.1 million. That's approximately 31 lakh people who traveled in that month alone (The railways beat this by almost 6 times logging 18.9 million people monthly)

The break-up of passengers carried by the Airlines in Oct-08 is as follows

• Jet Airways: 617,000
• Air India: 565,000
• Kingfisher: 445,000
• Deccan: 418,000
• IndiGo: 402,000
• SpiceJet: 297,000
• JetLite: 254,000
• Go Air: 75,000
• Paramount: 53,000
• MDLR: 7,000

Jet Airway's largest share of the passenger traffic is due to their deeper penetration of the corporate sector. They are backed by a well focused and very strong sales team that target primarily companies and corporate travels, with attractive discounts and customer loyalty programs. And since air travel is currently a niche market catering to the corporates, their focus has been on the right segment. Air India's second place would be largely due to the size of their network. Almost every city is included in their sectors.

The statistic should change for the month of November since Deccan has been merged and rebranded as Kingfisher Red. IndiGo is quickly on the rise due to them being one of the leaders of the low cast carrier concept. So out of the airlines you have traveled on, which would you recommend and why?

Vivek is our iXiGOer of the fortnight

We bring back our favourite part of the blog. The iXiGOER of the fortnight. This is a feature where we profile our most frequent users and find out a little about them and their background. To get yourself featured here and an exclusive call from us, all you have to do is use iXiGO frequently after signing in. This fortnight belongs to Vivek Shah.

iXiGO gets nominated as a ...

"Red Herring 100 Asia is an exclusive event honoring 100 cutting-edge private technology companies from across the Asia-Pacific region. The event brings together an elite roster of entrepreneurial and global venture investment firms to showcase excellence in innovation"

A little more than a year ago, iXiGO celebrated an important landmark. Within 5 months of our launch we were nominated as a Red Herring 100 Asia Finalist.

It gives us great pleasure to let you know that we have just done an encore. Red Herring has nominated iXiGO.com as one of the Finalists for Red Herring 100 Asia 2008. This is a moment of pride for us. Most of this couldn't have been done without the strong loyalty of the iXiGOer community - we are really happy to have such a great community that keeps us motivated to keep our innovation engine whirring.

You can see the complete list of nominees here.

Introducing International Hotels

About a week ago we released our latest and truly global product, iXiGO's International Hotels search. If you had noticed that "new" icon being placed next to the hotels link and were wondering what that was about, then our next series of posts dive into the various features we offer in our international hotels.

Our international hotel search covers over 200,000+ properties (that include hostels, hotels, cabins and shacks!) spread over 20,000+ cities, seriously! This really is one of the most comprehensive searches that covers terrain from Hawaii, Athens and all the way to Moscow!

We would like you to play around with our features and filters and give us feedback so that we know what you like, don't like and would like to see. The filter we'd like to highlight today is the

Currency Filter

We think the currency interchangeability is pretty useful. The display currency is detected based on your Geo location. So if you are in India, you would see Rupees and if you are in the United States, you would see the dollars.


Here's the rate in Dollars


and here in Euros (can you believe you can lodge in Moscow at 17 Euros?)


We offer all the leading currencies. Do feel free to fiddle around with our fun slider bar that allows you to locate your preferred property (one that is just right for your pocket).



Tomorrow we'll look at the other options; go on, test our hotels search now and tell us what you think!

Wishing you a very happy Diwali from iXiGO!

You can't celebrate Diwali without knowing what each day signifies for traditionally, and this post is set to help you in just that! Bhawna is back to let us know what the traditions and legends are behind each day of celebration.

First day of Diwali

Dhanteras is the first day of Diwali. 'Dhan' refers to wealth; hence, this day is celebrated to worship Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. On this day, obeisance is also paid to Dhanavantri, the doctor of the Gods. This day is also known as Dhantrayodashi or Dhan Teyras. Another name for the first day of Diwali is Yamadeepdan. This name is associated with Yama, the god of death. The sixteen year old son of King Hima was destined to die on this day. However, the devotion of his wife impressed Yama so much that he returned back without taking the Prince's life.

On this day, earthen lamps are lit for ancestors of the family and the lamps are floated down a river or pond. Lamps are also lit at the entrance of a home. Offerings comprising of water, rice, jaggery, vermillion, and flowers are kept for Yama. In South India, this day is known as Asweyuja Bahula Thrayodasi. It is a very auspicious day and every household celebrates by buying silver or gold items. If this is not financially possible, then at least new utensils are purchased.

Second day of Diwali

The second day is called Nakra-Chaturdashi or Choti Diwali falls on the fourteenth day of the month of Kartik. It is on this day that Lord Krishna returns from Pragyotishpur (Nepal) completing a journey where he killed the demon king Narakasur, freed 16,000 daughters of the gods in the king’s harem and reclaimed the Mother Goddess, Aditi’s earrings.
To prove he was victorious in killing the demon, Lord Krishna returned home with the king’s blood smeared on his forehead. To cleanse the blood and restore overall cleanliness, the womenfolk bathed the Lord in scented oils. Since then, the custom of taking bath before sunrise is customary in various parts of India, including Maharashtra.

Third day of Diwali

This day is chalked out for shopping. Markets are piled up with goodies and decorated to the hilt. Every year, there is an array of new things on display. Shopkeepers offer mega Diwali discounts to allure customers.

Firecracker stalls have every conceivable cracker and ‘bomb’, from rockets to sparklers to fire snakes, burning trains and what have you, covered in shiny golden and silver paper, for children and adults alike. Children look forward to their shopping binge primarily for this reason. Hordes of families throng the markets of their towns and villages for the Diwali shopping spree. Clothes are bought for all members of the family.

Buying utensils on dhan teras is also a must, as doing so is considered auspicious. Lamps, candles, festoons, animal-shaped sugar candies, sweets covered with silver foil and packed in bright cardboard boxes, colorful earthen idols of various important gods and goddesses and other things adorn endless rows of shelves. So that makes three days of Diwali celebrations!


With that, we, from iXiGO, wish you a very very happy and prosperous Diwali from our side and make sure you keep watching our logo on Monday to see our special Diwali logo!

Diwali celebrations and the story of Diwali

It doesn't matter which part of India you live in, you can be assured of the crackers that are going to burst this weekend. Everyone's excited in welcoming Diwali. This is a time when our houses are cleaned and decorated, crackers are burst with great fervor and joy and new clothes are worn by everyone. Our HR Manager, Bhawna Kumar, is particularly excited about Diwali since this is her favourite festival of the year. In a series of posts from today, she is going to share with us the story of Diwali; the way it's seen and celebrated around India.

What is Diwali?

Diwali is celebrated in the Hindu month of Kartik (around November) on Amavas, or the new moon right after Dussehra. The name ‘Diwali’ is from the Sanskrit ‘Deepawali’ which means ‘row of lamps’ (also known as Deepawali), or ‘the festival of lights’ is perhaps the most popular of all Hindu festivals. Like most festivals, Diwali has its mythological and historical bedrock. Legend has it that Hanuman (the legendary monkey-god and prime devotee of Lord Rama, the god-hero of the great Hindu epic, the Ramayana) delivered the much awaited message of Rama’s return to Ayodhya (Rama’s kingdom) after 14 years in exile. The entire kingdom rejoiced upon hearing the news and Ayodhya was washed, cleansed and dressed up with lights and shimmering earthen lamps to welcome the Lord himself. Diwali is celebrated even today to commemorate this event. Today Diwali is also dedicated to Ganesha (the elephant-headed God of Wisdom and Prosperity) and Lakshmi (the Goddess of Wealth).

Goddess Lakshmi and Diwali

Story has it that at one time, the Gods were cursed to be weak in body and mind. To get rid of this, Brahma suggested that Amrit (or divine nectar) should be churned out from the depths of the ocean so that once consumed, it would increase their vigor and make them immortal. This being no mean task though, it required the efforts of the Demons (Asuras) as well, who the Gods had promised to share the nectar with. Lord Vishnu (the Hindu Preserver of the Universe) came up with a solution saying that Mount Meru could act as the churning stick, while Vasuki (the mythical serpent) could be used as the coil around Meru. But this churning turned out to be so phenomenal that it threatened to destroy the three worlds. So Lord Vishnu, took the guise of a turtle and used his back to stabilise the churning. Spectacular treasures arrived from the ocean and the first Goddess to come out was the Goddess of Wealth, Lakshmi. That's why people first pray to Goddess Lakshmi because if she comes to your house, all wealth, goodness and cheer will follow.

This day is devoted to Goddess Lakshmi as it is believed that she pays each house a visit on this day of the year. People hold a Lakshmi puja (prayer ceremony) in their homes. This day is especially significant for the merchant class, and quite understandably so. Traditionally this day marked the commencement of the new financial year and is still considered to do so by some people. In urban India, many business deals are finalised around this time and business houses give a Diwali bonus and gifts to their employees on the occasion. Lakshmi presides over all the ceremonies that are performed during Diwali.

So that is the significance of Diwali, in the next series of posts at our iXiGO blog, we'll look into the ways people celebrate Diwali and other interesting stories!

Our front page gets a newer look.

We love redesigning. Everything from our holiday icons to enhancing the user interface are things we involve a lot of our time in. This new build brings out a couple of new features that we have brought and some visual changes well. I want to highlight some of the visual changes today. By the way, if you haven't read about our iXiGO Mobile already, then give this blog post a read.

So what have we added to our front page?

We have divided our front page into 4 neat sections. The What's new section dealing with everything we have added new. That's the page you refer to when you want to know what's the latest offering from us.

We have a newly designed press page as well, where we have added sub categories with cute icons to highlight awards and recognitions, blogs, news articles and interviews separately and arranged by most recent.

If you have missed out on making money through our website (as an affiliate) then this is the next section entitled partners, that you should head to first! You can use this and sign up as an affiliate and earn money by partnering with iXiGO!

Our deal's section showcases some exciting deals we found on other travel sites which iXiGOers need to be aware about in our continuous dedication to transparency.

And finally, our newly designed "marquee" area with the fading text, which we want you to check out ;-). So what do you think?

iXiGOing Mobile

We just released our mobile product, and if you haven't read the news, then just head on to the mobile page to give it a try!

Our mobile page now lets you search and book flights and hotels with any phone that can access the internet (though GPRS or 3G networks).

We have made sure that we keep our feature rich User Interface intact and what's more, we have added in filters we think would be really useful to the iXiGOer. So here's what we have in store.


Features

One of the features we have introduced is the direct click to call option. Once you have narrowed down your flight / hotels search result, you are given the option to "book". You can directly contact the call center of the airline or hotel aggregator to complete your booking by clicking "book".

Taking a booking for New Delhi to Mumbai as an example, we find that there is the exact price of the fare mentioned and also a direct call option (the number being displayed is the call center of IndiGo). This lets you directly call and book your ticket though the provider's call center page. Pretty nifty right?

We have maintained our feature rich search from iXiGO even on the mobile platform. We offer you the sort and filter option as shown.

The sort option lets you sort the results shown either by price or by time. The filter by option lets you filter flights by airlines or by departure times. Check the pic below!

As shown, you can choose which airlines' flights you want shown. You can also filter the results based on your preferred travel time - morning, afternoon, evening or late evening. In our hotel search we display pictures, description and maps as well. Here's a snippet


4 Reasons why you should use iXiGO's mobile search?

• It takes away the pain of calling a travel agent to book your tickets
• There are NO extra fees or commissions (WYSIWYG - What You See Is What You Get).
• Hassle free direct connect with the operator so your booking status is known straight away.
• Convenient access when you don't have a computer!

So go ahead, try it today and let us know what you think We love getting feedback and reply personally to every query.

NDTV-iXiGO partnership formal announcement

NDTV Convergence partners with iXiGO.com for travel search

Leading travel search engine to power flight searches on NDTVtravels.com

New Delhi, October 14, 2008 – iXiGO (www.ixigo.com), India’s fastest growing online travel search engine has announced its partnership with NDTV Convergence for powering airfare searches on NDTV.com (www.ndtvtravels.com). NDTV’s flight search, powered by iXiGO.com, will enable users to search lowest air fares in real-time across all airlines and airports in India, and book them directly on airline websites, effectively by-passing travel agencies and saving on booking fees charged by travel portals.

The newly launched NDTVtravels.com is a first of its kind travel supermart, aggregating niche players to provide the consumer with a complete travel shopping experience. NDTV Convergence partnered with iXiGO.com for its flight search because of its promising business model, a disruptive meta-search technology that helps users access deals from multiple travel sites and presents unbiased information, allowing for better travel buying decisions. With its innovative offerings, iXiGO’s flight search engine will strengthen NDTV Convergence’s leadership in online and mobile media, extending their bouquet of offerings to online travel.

Announcing the partnership, Mr. Sanjay Trehan, CEO NDTV Convergence commented,

“NDTV Convergence is pleased to partner with iXiGO.com to power the fare search on its travel portal, www.ndtvtravels.com. We are always on the lookout for partners who believe in our vision of constant innovation to satisfy changing user behavior and prepare for disruptive business models. This partnership fits well with our philosophy of delivering valuable, unbiased, real-time information to our users.”

Mr. Aloke Bajpai, founder and CEO of iXiGO, added, “NDTV Convergence’s visionary leadership has proven its commitment to innovation by choosing to partner with iXiGO. We are committed to delivering the most powerful and feature-rich airfare search engine in India to users on NDTV.com . This partnership is a significant milestone for iXiGO’s success and growth.”

About NDTV Convergence:

NDTV Convergence Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of NDTV Networks Plc, is a leading web 2.0 company. The company develops exclusive content for cross media platforms such as internet, mobile, ITV and IPTV. NDTV Convergence operates www.ndtv.com along with other leading verticals, namely, NDTVProfit, NDTVGoodtimes, NDTVMovies, NDTVTravels, CricketNDTV.com, NDTVArabia, NDTVImagine, NDTVCooks and NDTVGadgets. The bouquet covers an entire gamut of news and beyond encompassing recipes, travel, entertainment, shopping, books, health, gadgets and special features. The company also has a short code presence through its brand NDTV mobile- 56388(India), 63880(UK), 6388(UAE) and an IVR platform with 5056388

ABOUT iXiGO.com:

iXiGO.com ® is India’s leading online travel search engine based out of Gurgaon. iXiGO searches across multiple airlines, hotels, and bus booking sites and finds the best deals for travelers. Launched in June 2007 by an entrepreneurial team of young IITians and INSEAD MBAs, iXiGO.com has been recognized as a NASSCOM Top-100 Innovator and BusinessToday and WSJ-Mint have named it among India’s hottest startups for its unique market approach, product usability, and passionate management team. iXiGO is backed by BAF Spectrum, a Singapore-based seed-investment fund . For more information about iXiGO, visit www.ixigo.com.

Media Contact

Dharmendra Yashovardhan

iXiGO.com

Email: dharmendra@ixigo.com

Telephone: +91 124 4045281