Indian OTA Cleartrip has found that most customers of its recently-launched activities channel are people looking to do more in their own city.
Cleartrip launched its activities channel last August, and has built the inventory up to 13,000 experiences in 50 cities.
In the January to March period Cleartrip found that 80% of the bookings were from users trying something in their home city. The infographic below highlights which activities are popular within broad categories - go-karting, parasailing, theme parks, culinary workshops and spa visits are all referenced.
There are no year-on-year comparables for activities, but the number of searches in the Jan-March was up by 63% compared with the previous quarter.
In a more strategic context activities are driving a big increase in Cleartrip's overall mobile footprint. More than one-third of searches on its apps in the quarter were for activities, and this is attracting new and younger users to the brand, with 43% of activities customers aged 18-25 with a significant weighting towards females.
Cleartrip's core travel business also did well on mobile in the quarter, and the percentages relate to transaction not traffic - air was up 53% compared with the first three months of 2015 with hotels up by 64%.
Meanwhile, Cleartrip has also added digital payments provider Freecharge as one of the options for customers. Reports from India are framing this in terms of Freecharge's attempts to get involved in the travel sector as a way to compete with the digital wallet owned by Paytm, one of India's biggest online marketplaces and backed by Alibaba.
Outside of the travel sector, fashion retailer Myntra has announced that it is relaunching its desktop site, a year or so ago since it announced that it was going to become an app-only business. Its revamped mobile website was quietly relaunched a month ago. Quite simply, the move hit revenues.
And before it removes its explanation from its FAQ channel, here's why it went app-only.
"Myntra has made this move with an eye towards the future, where mobiles will outgrow desktops both in terms of computing power and penetration. Myntra believes that switching to a mobile platform gives you the freedom to shop anytime, anywhere. It fits in perfectly with Myntra’s aim to create customer delight, as mobiles allow us to create a high quality personalized experience to cater to your unique look good needs."
The move raised some eyebrows in India, particularly at Cleartrip HQ - just before Myntra's move Cleartrip had relaunched its mobile website admitting that too much internal attention has been placed on its apps.
The significance for travel firms - in India and abroad - of Myntra's u-turn is that it proves ecommerce is multi-channel, multi-device. Mobile-first might be fairly common-place in travel, mobile-only might be some way away.
Here's Cleatrip's infographic.