December means vacation days, which also means travel time for a bulk of Indians who head out of town for Christmas and New Year’s. India’s tourism sector is a thriving, multi-billion-dollar industry with immense growth potential. In India today, a substantial portion of travel — whether domestic flights, hotels, holiday packages or inter-city bus trips — is booked online. As railways, flights and buses become increasingly digitised, travellers are turning to apps and websites for convenience, flexibility, and often the best deals.
Here’s what’s striking: many of the most-used Indian travel-tech platforms are not giant conglomerates, but smallcap companies. Below is a look at some of these publicly traded travel companies – when they began, what they do, and what distinguishes each.
Yatra Online Ltd. (Yatra)
Yatra Online, behind the website and app Yatra, is one of the veteran travel portals in India, launched in 2005.
- Services: Yatra offers a full stack of travel services: domestic and international flight booking, hotels, holiday packages, bus/train bookings, ground transport, car rentals, visa and passport assistance, travel-insurance and more.
- USP: Yatra caters to both retail (B2C) customers and to corporate travel, giving it a diversified revenue base beyond just leisure travellers. Its broad service offering and reach across multiple modes (air, ground, packaged holidays, etc) positions it as a relatively full-service OTA.
Easy Trip Planners Ltd. (EaseMyTrip)
Easy Trip Planners, which operates under the brand name EaseMyTrip was founded in 2008. The company went public via IPO in 2021.
- Services: EaseMyTrip offers a broad suite of travel services: flight tickets, bus tickets, train tickets, hotel bookings, holiday packages, and ancillary services such as travel-insurance and visa handling.
- USP: EaseMyTrip’s has a “zero-convenience-fee” model that sets it apart from other OTAs, which is a plus in a price-sensitive market like India, and attracts lots of customers looking for low-cost options. The company also has a strong distribution presence beyond its online presence, with a wide travel-agent network. EaseMyTrip also serves a significant corporate clientele via B2B channels.
Thomas Cook (India) Ltd.
While Thomas Cook may not be a mobility or OTA app per se, it is an important listed travel services player in the smallcap space.
- Services: Thomas Cook India offers domestic and international holiday packages foreign-exchange services, travel-insurance, visa/passport facilitation, and related holiday-tourism services.
- USP: Experience is what Thomas Cook brings to the table. With a legacy in travel and package-holiday services that spans decades, the company bridges conventional travel and tourism services with modern demands, catering to customers who want end-to-end services: travel + holiday + currency/exchange + concierge services etc.
Le Travenues Technology Ltd. (Ixigo)
Le Travenues runs Ixigo – a travel aggregator that originally launched as a travel meta-search engine, and has over time evolved into a full fledged online-travel agency (OTA).
- Services: Ixigo aggregates real-time travel data for flights, trains, buses, hotels, and facilitates booking with associated partner apps/websites. Over the years, it expanded beyond just search: Ixigo now offers hotel search, a train-ticket booking app, and bus-booking and fleet-management via the platforms AbhiBus and ConfirmTkt.
- USP: As a technology-first, meta-search plus OTA hybrid, Ixigo provides users with aggregated choices across a range of booking options, giving users both flexibility and transparency. Plus, the focus on budget and value-seeking travellers works well in a price-sensitive market like India.
TBO Tek Ltd.
TBO (Travel Boutique Online) is a B2B-focused travel-tech platform that serves travel agents/tour operators rather than directly targeting retail travellers.
- Services: The company provides white-label solutions, wholesale flight & hotel booking APIs, “dynamic packaging” of holiday/travel services, and backend support for agents and tour operators.
- USP: TBO targets a niche but vital segment: travel agents and businesses. This enables them to offer tech-enabled booking, inventory management and packages to their customers. As a B2B player, it operates behind the scenes, enabling many smaller or offline travel agents to access competitive travel inventory.
More in store
Despite being smaller, these companies cover the majority of OTA-driven online travel bookings beyond the largest players (some of which remain unlisted or are conglomerates). Growing internet penetration, smartphone adoption, increasing middle-class willingness to travel, and appetite for convenience all fuel this growth.
India’s travel demand is still rising, thanks to growing disposable incomes, low-cost carriers that are making domestic leisure travel more accessible, a rising interest in holiday packages, and convenience-first customers, all of which point to continued expansion. As more consumers shift online – especially beyond metro-cities – travel-tech and OTAs will see greater adoption.
The companies above, whether consumer-facing OTAs like EaseMyTrip, Yatra and ixigo, or B2B enablers like TBO Tek — stand to benefit. If they scale, manage working capital efficiently, and maintain user experience, they could see substantial growth in the years ahead.
Sources
5Paisa: Best Travel Stocks in India
Investing.com: Yatra Online Ltd
EquityMaster: Easy Trip Planners
List of Best Travel Stocks in India 2025
List of Best Travel Stocks in India 2025
India’s rising middle class joins the $15 trillion global travel opportunity – The Economic Times
India’s tourism sector hits new high: WTTC reports Rs 3.1 trillion in international spending
India Tourism Data Compendium 2025 Shows 20.57 million Arrivals, USD 35 Billion Receipts