The day is not very far when Indian travellers can crisscross the globe with just a few clicks. Taking ecommerce and information technology services a step further, the Indian travel industry is composing

itself to usher in the era of e$-$ticketing.

Online booking involves pursuing available information on travel websites and then making a

reservation. However, if you are not the kind who prefers a particular airline, you can check out travel

sites, which collate flight details of all airlines, and are the apt place to book or bid for air tickets. Travel

portals, such as travelguru.com, arzoo.com, yatra.com, indiatimes.com, rediff.com, makemytrip.com,

and cleartrip.com, would provide you with all details of flights along with their fares in ascending order,

i$.$e$.,$ the lowest priced, ticket is featured first, on its web page.

The number of consumers who book travel tickets online is growing. However, a switch from an offline

environment to an online environment creates certain doubts in the minds of consumers. Such doubts

have been termed as perceived risks in literature.

Also, the Internet revolution has brought about significant changes in market transparency, defined as

the availability and accessibility of information to market participants. For example, air travellers can

use online travel agencies to browse hundreds of travels offers to their destination, compared to typically

few offers from a traditional travel agent or airline before the Internet era.

Generally, market transparency seems to benefit consumers because they can better discern the product

that best fits their needs at a better price. However, there still is a large percentage of population who

get their tickets booked through the traditional queuing system.

The advent of e$-$ticket booking over the past couple of years has led to the mushrooming of online travel

agencies. These online service providers have come up with a wide variety of services for faster and

more convenient modes of ticket booking. They offer a host of services starting from booking something

as mundane as a train or flight ticket to something as exotic as a holiday. They offer various packages

which have the entire itinerary for the proposed holiday. They even offer a convenient pick$-$up and drop

service. With such a range of services being offered at your fingertips, expectations are that a greater

number of travellers would start using such easy, fast and convenient services as compared to the

conventional booking process across a reservation counter. Yet, we still observe long queues at the

various reservation counters. and we also know that there are many people who use the online services

available to book their travel than through traditional travel booking counters.

Srininandan Rao, CEO of Ghoom.com, a travel portal that has been in existence for the past three years

wondered whether he can look at a bigger customer base for his travel booking business or look at an

alternative e$-$business.

QUESTIONS

$1.$ What is the kind of research study that you can undertake for Mr Rao?

$2.$ Formulate the research problem and the objectives of your study. Can you suggest an alternative

research approach that you can take?

$3.$ Develop a working hypothesis for your stud