Indian banks cashing in on domestic travel industry growth

More and more banks are coming up travel credit cards, with the aim to attract frequent fliers in the country. At present, there are more than 250,000 travel credit cards circulating in the country.

The banks are getting motivated to launch travel credit cards seeing the growth in the domestic travel industry. Indian domestic travel industry is growing at a rate of 45% and is estimated to be worth Rs. 1.32 lakh crore.

The private sector lender, Axis bank, recently launched “My WingsCredit Card”, a travel card. Standard Chartered will launch a travel credit card in a tie up with travel portal, Yatra.com in two months time.

Talking on this matter, a spokesperson of Axis Bank said, “We would be interested in launching more travel focused cards if we can create greater customer value than the existing product offerings in this segment.”

Further, on this matter, Mr. Shyamal Saxena, India and South Asia general manager for retail banking products of Standard Chartered Bank said, “There is a significant increase in domestic traffic vis-a-vis international travel and consumers are increasingly opting for air travel as low-cost airlines have made this affordable. The size of the opportunity can be judged from the fact that the current customer base of Yatra, Travelguru and Buzz-in-town (all group companies) runs into millions.”