By Indian Railways. Journal of Management. As Adopted. Winter Abstract. Dr Pooja Jain Dhanjay Yadav

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1 NIET Journal of Management Winter Trends of Online Marketing As Adopted Abstract This paper provides a holistic view of the major initiatives undertaken by the Indian Railways to promote the adoption of online marketing. It also studies the pace and pattern of technological developments undertaken by Indian Railways. To put it in perspective, in the seven years since its inception, the railways technological advancement initiative has witnessed spectacular growth. The main finding is that Indian Railways online marketing has come a long way in the last 5-6 years, but still it s in early stages. It may take some more time to reach the maturity level of developed markets. It looks more like the pre-bubble period. A lot of investment is happening, user base is increasing, new opportunities are coming up - things seem to be moving in the right direction. Key Terms: Indian Railways. Introduction Online Marketing In today s competitive environment of the 1st century, it has become a necessity for the Indian Railways to bring changes in offering different tourism services with the use of advanced technologies. No doubt Indian Railways is becoming technologically advanced and the fact that people can book their tickets online. The people By Indian Railways Dr Pooja Jain Dhanjay Yadav who know how to access internet on computers, can easily get reservation done on the internet itself. Indian Railway Online Booking has certainly changed the system of reservation in India. The best thing about this service is that one can get reservation done, sitting at home before the computer. This paper provides a holistic view of the major initiatives undertaken by the Indian Railways to promote the adoption of online marketing of Indian Railways. It also studies the pace and pattern of technological developments undertaken by Indian Railways. To put the growth in perspective, in the seven years since its inception, the railways technological advancement initiative has witnessed spectacular growth. This paper examines the trends of online marketing of Indian Railways which is also the first objective of the present study. Further, this paper is divided into two sections. The first section outlines the context of trends of online ticket reservation. The second section gives a brief idea about the different earnings through online marketing of Indian Railways in order to provide an understanding the full potential of the internet. 61

2 TRENDS OF ONLINE MARKETING AS ADOPTED BY INDIAN RAILWAYS Research Methodology Figure 1.1: I Ticket Booked The data is secondary, collected from IRCTC center New Delhi and is further analysed through various statistical tools and trends represented in charts. Regression Model has been used to analyse the data. Online Ticket Reservation Trends analysis In this section growth trends of online tickets booked, passengers traveled through online tickets, service charge for online ticket reservation and fare value of online tickets has been analysed. The data has been provided by Online Ticketing reservation centre of IRCTC New Delhi. It is to be noted here that data has been analysed on monthly basis since its inception to March 010. Indian Railways provides two types of online tickets - I-tickets and E-tickets. I-ticket was introduced in August 00, allows the traveler to place an order for a ticket, and get a physical ticket couriered to him. E-tickets (introduced in August 005) on the other hand, allow the traveler to take a ticket print-out at their own end after booking the ticket. For heading towards journey, one is required to take the e-ticket along with an appropriate identity card. 1. Passengers Travelled with I-Ticket Figure 1. is also showing an upward trend. The value of R is 0.659; depicting 65.9% variation in passengers travelled with I-Ticket is due to time. The equation of trend line is: Y = -09.4X X 1580 to estimate the future I-ticket passengers travelled. Figure 1.: Passengers Travelled with I-Ticket 1. I-ticket 1.1 I-Ticket Booked I-ticket reservation is showing a polynomial trend. As it is clear from the figure 1.1 it is showing an upward trend up to 008 but after that it started declining continuously. The value of R is which is quite good; depicting 71.7% variation in ticket reservation is due to time. Source: Based on data provided by Internet The equation of trend line is: Y = X X to estimate the future I-ticket reservation. 6

3 NIET Journal of Management Winter Ticket Fare The value of R is 0.651; depicting 65.1% variation in ticket fare of I-Ticket is due to time. The equation of trend line is: Y = -1195X + 1E+07X 8E+07 to estimate the future I-ticket fare. Figure 1.3: Ticket Fare towards journey, one is required to take the e-ticket along with an appropriate identity card. The Railways which launched e-tickets in 005 after about a year of delay since the proposal was envisaged feared that the e-tickets may be misused. E-tickets have proven to be a hit since their launch. Apart from the sheer ease of taking the printout at the user's end without having to wait for a courier delivery, the fact that the service charge for booking e-tickets is cheaper than i-tickets also helped E-Ticket Booked 1.4 Service Charge The value of R is 0.77; depicting 7.7% variation in service charge of I-Ticket is due to time. The equation of trend line is: Y = -5038X X 4E+06 to estimate the future I-ticket service charge. E-ticket reservation is showing a power trend. Figure 1.7 is showing an upward trend continuously for e- ticket reservation. The value of R is which is very good; depicting 98.7% variation in ticket reservation is due to time..69 The equation of power trend line is: Y = 3.8x to estimate the future E-ticket reservation. Figure 1.7: E Tickets Booked Figure 1.4: Service Charge 1.5 E-ticket E-tickets (introduced in August 005) on the other hand, allow the traveler to take a ticket print-out at their own end after booking the ticket. For heading 1.5. Passengers Travelled with E-Ticket Figure 1.8 is also showing an upward trend. The value of R is 0.987; depicting 98.7% variation in passengers travelled with E-Ticket is due to time..656 The equation of trend line is: Y = 36.3x to estimate the future E-ticket passengers travelled. 63

4 TRENDS OF ONLINE MARKETING AS ADOPTED BY INDIAN RAILWAYS Figure 1.8: Passengers Travelled with E-Ticket Ticketing Reservation Centre of Indian Railways Comparison between E-Ticket and I-Ticket In order to study the growth rate trends of online ticket booking yearly data have been analyzed. According to statistics available, only tickets were sold across the country when the Indian Railways started selling tickets through a dedicated website in 00. It was a negligible percentage of yearly sales. Figure 1.9 Year Wise Online Ticket Booking and Growth In first four years I-Ticket has registered an upward growth trend. But surprisingly in the growth rate has decreased to 18%. In there was a decline of 6.3% instead of increase, due to the inclination of customers towards e-tickets more as compare to I-tickets. There is further decline of 51.3% in E-tickets were introduced in 005 has shown more growth as compared a to I-tickets. In a span of four years, the number of e-tickets booked had increased to from In the first year the number of e-tickets booked was very less. But, during the second year e-ticket has shown a dramatic increase of %. The growth rate in was 93.64%. But in the growth rate was only 70.3%. Share of E-Tickets and I-Tickets E-tickets were introduced in 005 has shown more growth as compare to I-tickets. In a span of five years, the number of e-tickets booked had shown a tremendous increase. In the first year the number of e- tickets booked was very less. But, after that e-ticket has shown a dramatic increase. Figure1.11: Share of E-Tickets and I-Tickets Note:- * Figures are from August Figure 1.10: Comparison between E-Ticket and I-Ticket Ticketing Reservation Centre of Indian Railways Source: Based on data provided by Internet The share of e-tickets has been increasing steadily since the service launched with e-tickets accounting for 98% per cent share in of total online train tickets, up from about 94 percent (008-09), 8 per cent (007-08), 58 per cent (006-07) and 7 per cent (005-06). This has further prompted the railways to further look into the possibilities of issuing more e- tickets. 64

5 NIET Journal of Management Winter Adoption of Online Ticket Reservation To study the adoption of online ticket reservation the data of passengers travelled with counter tickets is being compared with online tickets (E-Ticket and I- Ticket). As it is clear from the figure 1.1 that the percentage of passengers travelled with online Tickets is being increasing continuously. During the period April 07 August 07 Only 8% online passengers travelled but in Feb 09 this figure increased upto 3%. The share of e-tickets has been increasing steadily since the service launched with e-tickets accounting for 31.4% per cent share in 010 of total train tickets, up from about 7. percent (009), 4 per cent (008), 0 per cent (007) and 13 per cent (006). This has further prompted the railways to further look into the possibilities of issuing more e-tickets. On the Other hand the share of I-tickets booked is reducing every year. It was only % in year 00 and in 010 it was 0.6% of total tickets booked. The inclination towards e-ticket of railways is rising spectacularly as compare to I-tickets. Figure 1.1: Adoption of Online Ticket Reservation to get the enquired result. Poor literacy levels combined with equally poor internet awareness has hindered the spread of internet bookings. There are travellers who prefer to make their reservations from counters then from the internet. Reason - they feel more secure interacting with people than with a faceless web interface. The point being made is counter bookings are often backed with support services due to which the traveller can always bank on the counter people and the relevant authorities. Online bookings however continue to grow.. Earnings through Online Marketing Indian Railways is also generating earnings through various online marketing options like promotional mails, banners on site, confirmation mail, text link, PNR alert, etc. To study the trends of these earnings data from April 007 to March 010 has been analyzed. The value of R is 0.58; depicting 5.8% variation in earnings through online marketing with the time. The equation of trend line is: Y = X X 6E + 09 to estimate the future earnings through online marketing. Figure.1: Earnings through Online Marketing The number of passengers carrying e-ticket is still less than 30% of the total number of travelers. A journey in an Indian train would reveal that most passengers still carry the traditional railway counter book tickets. You are also likely to encounter the inexplicable sight of people standing in long queues in front of booking counters just to ascertain the PNR status or enquire accommodation availability in trains when all they could do was to use the internet As we have discussed Indian Railways have earnings through various sources but it is to be noted it has no earnings from confirmation mail and PNR alert. The earnings from other three different sources are given below 65

6 TRENDS OF ONLINE MARKETING AS ADOPTED BY INDIAN RAILWAYS Figure.: Earnings through Different Sources of Online Marketing Like western world, Indian Railways will soon face competition from other means of travel, particularly Airlines and Roadways. Competition is always good news for both players and consumers, and surely Railways must be gearing up to embrace that. As it is clear from the above figure. that the earnings from text link is almost negligible and earnings from promotional mails is reducing. Indian Railways is not having very high earnings from online marketing. Conclusion The Indian Railways has made a quantum leap forward in terms of switching over from paper-based ticketing system to online ticketing. I-ticket reservation is showing a polynomial trend. It showed an upward trend up to 008 but after that it started declining continuously. On the other hand E-ticket reservation is showing an upward power trend. The percentage of passengers travelled with online Tickets is increasing continuously. Most preffered mode of payment by users is Net banking/debit cards followed by credit card option. Indian railways is not having very high earnings from various online marketing options like promotional mails, banners on site, confirmation mail, text link, PNR alert, etc. In nutshell, it can be concluded that the Indian Railways online marketing has come a long way just in the last 5-6 years, but still it s in early stages. It might still take some time to reach the maturity level of more developed markets. It looks more like the pre-bubble period. A lot of investment is happening, user base is increasing, new opportunities are coming up - things seem to be moving in the right direction. References Badnjevic, Jasmina and Padukova, Lena (006). ICT Awareness in Small Entreprises in the Indian tourism Branch. Master Thesis. Lulea University of Technology. Available at Buhalis, D., (003). etourism: information technology for strategic tourism management. Pearson Publication, London. Buhalis, D., and Deimezi, O. (004). E-tourism developments in Greece: Information communication technologies adoption for the strategic management of the Greek tourism industry. Tourism and Hospitality Research, 5(), Buhalis, D. (005). Information Communication Technology Revolutionizing Tourism. Tourism Recreation Research, 30 (3), Buhalis, D. & Law, R. (008). Progress in Information Technology and Tourism Management: 0 Years on and 10 Years After the Internet The State of etourism Research. Tourism Management, 9(6), Gratzer, Markus et. al. (004). Electronic Business in Tourism. International Journal of Electronic Business, (5), 004, McIvor, Ronan et. al. (003). The impact of Internet technologies on the airline industry: current strategies and future developments. Strategic Change, 1, Werthner H., Klein, S. (1999). ICT and the Changing Landscape of Global Tourism Distribution. Electronic Markets, 9 (4), Chary, Satyanarayan T. and Christopher, Moses T. (003), E-commerce and Indian Consumer Indian Journal of Marketing, Vol. XXXIII, No. 4, pp Guda, Neeraja (005), E-Business-Trends and Issues, Indian Journal of Marketing, Vol. XXXV, No.1, pp. -3. Haque, Ahasanul; Javad Sadeqzadeh and Ali Khatibi (007), Evaluating Potential of Online Sales by Electronic Shopping Test : A Conceptual Framework, Indian Journal of Marketing, Vol. XXXVII, No. 1, pp Malhotra, Naresh K. (009), Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation, 7th Edition, Prentice Hall of India Private Ltd., New Delhi. Dr Pooja Jain Asst. Professor Satyawati Co-ed College (Eve.) (Delhi University) Co-Author- Dhanjay Yadav Asst. Professor Satyawati Co-ed College (Eve.) (Delhi University) 66