By Hemant SharmaTravel and tourism is a major industry in India with a huge contribution to the national GDP. The value of travel market in India is projected to reach a value of USD 125 billion by the year 2027, up from USD 70 billion in the year 2020. Apart from high growth in tourism infrastructure like hotels and connectivity options, the advent of online travel portals is also driving the growth of travel industry in the country. Online travel portals have made trip planning very swift and easy for millions of people. They feature all kinds of services, right from flight/train/bus reservations and hotel bookings to holiday packages and reviews. Consequently, travellers are able to plan and book their trips right from their smartphones and other devices. Let’s have a look at the top 10 biggest travel portals in India 2025.
1. Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation or IRCTC, established in the year 1999, is the biggest travel portal offering ticketing, catering and tourism services. It is owned by the Ministry of Railways under the Government of India. Apart from online ticket booking for trains operated by Indian railways, the portal also provides booking facilities for flights, buses and hotels.
IRCTC also offers multiple holiday packages for domestic and foreign tourists, including tourist packages onboard premium luxury trains. Furthermore, e-catering facility is also available to enable tourists to order food during transit from affiliated restaurants.
2. MakeMyTrip
MakeMyTrip, established in the year 2000, is a highly popular travel portal providing a number of services like domestic and international flight and hotel bookings, train ticket bookings, bus ticket bookings, taxi bookings and both domestic and international holiday packages. Apart from India, the portal also operates in many foreign locations like Dubai, Bangkok, Singapore, Phuket, Kuala Lampur and more.
MakeMyTrip provides a number of premium services like trip guarantee, book now pay later, travel insurance and more. Forex services like buying foreign currency and multicurrency cards are also available on this platform.
3. Skyscanner
Skyscanner, launched in the year 2003, is a Scotland-based travel portal with presence in multiple countries, including India. It is basically a search engine which searches all the top airline companies, travel providers and other travel agencies to find the best deals on flight bookings, hotel bookings and cab bookings. The users get access to multiple filters for their searches, such as flight duration, rate, hotel rating, destination, one-way, round-trip and more.
Skyscanner also has a price alert feature which informs the users about price drops of flight tickets via push notifications and emails. Multi-city search option is also available for complex itineraries.
4. Yatra.com
Yatra.com, established in the year 2006, is a major online travel portal in India. It offers a wide range of travel services, including domestic and foreign flight ticket bookings, domestic and international hotel bookings, holiday packages, bus bookings and cab bookings. The platform has a network of over 100,000 contracted hotels in India.
Yatra.com also offers online visa application services to apply for e-visa and other categories of visa for multiple countries. Till date, over 7 million users have availed the services of this platform.
5. Booking.com
Booking.com, founded in the year 1996, is an international online travel agency with presence in over 220 countries, including India. It offers booking services for both domestic and international flights, car rentals and airport taxis. The platform also provides accommodation bookings in both India and abroad by virtue of its vast network of over 2 million hotels, resorts, apartments, guest houses and more.
Booking.com is available in over 40 languages, while payment options are available in numerous currencies, including INR. The platform also provides 24/7 customer support to the users.
6. Trip Advisor
Trip Advisor, established in the year 2000, is an American travel portal operating in 40 countries, including India, and available in 20 languages. It provides the best deals on domestic and international flights, cruises, hotels and holiday homes along with user-generated reviews of the same.
Trip Advisor is best known for its huge database of reviews, photos and recommendations by a huge community of travellers regarding hotels, restaurants, places to explore, adventure activities and more.
7. Expedia
Expedia, founded in the year 1996, is an American travel portal operating in multiple countries worldwide, including India. It provides complete booking facilities for flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises and vacation packages for both domestic and foreign destinations. The platform also offers bundling packages which enable users to book flights and hotels within a single package. Furthermore, the users are also able to filter stays on various parameters like spa, sea view, apartment, family-friendly and more.
Expedia runs a loyalty program which awards points to its users on each booking. The accumulated points can be used by the customers to get discounts on future bookings.
8. Cleartrip
Cleartrip, founded in the year 2006, is one of the leading online travel portals in India. It operates not only in India and but also in many Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and more. The platform offers booking facilities for flights, trains and buses, and lists over 3 lakh hotels and other properties for stays in India and abroad. A host of domestic and international tour packages are also available on the platform.
9. Ease My Trip
Ease My Trip, founded in the year 2008, is an Indian travel portal which also operates in Thailand, UAE and UK. It provides end-to-end to booking services for flights, trains, hotels, cabs, buses and even metro rail in Delhi, Mumbai and Kochi. The platform also offers many domestic and international holiday packages, and visa services for multiple countries. Ease My Trip is providing the facility of booking flight tickets through WhatsApp since January 2020.
10. redBus
redBus, established in the year 2006, is India’s largest bus ticketing platform. It provides bus booking services for both private and government-owned buses all over India. Apart from bus, the platform also provides booking facilities for railways and cabs. redBus also operates in Peru, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Colombia.
Conclusion
Online travel portals are becoming essential for travellers in India. Various platforms are introducing newer features and offers to attract more users. High growth in travel and tourism sector in the coming years will not only lead to expansion of established travel portals but also the advent of new domestic and international players.