With the onset of the festive season, ixigo (Le Travenues Technology Limited), India’s  online travel aggregator, announced a partnership with Simpl, India’s foremost Checkout Network, to offer a seamless 1-Tap Checkout for a wide range of travel options on the ixigo, and ConfirmTkt platforms. This assumes significance as India witnesses a significant uptick in travel during the festive season as people tend to increase their travel to their hometowns, pilgrimage sites, and tourist destinations.

As part of this partnership, millions of travellers across the country will be able to seamlessly avail lakhs of travel options across flights, trains, buses, and hotels on ixigo with Simpl’s 1-Tap Checkout, ensuring a streamlined and user-friendly booking process this festive season. Domestic travel has surpassed its pre-COVID levels as of this fiscal year and is expected to remain one of the fastest-growing categories in online commerce this year.

This partnership also becomes important as an increasing number of travellers today are looking for convenience in bookings apart from selection and affordability. As customer-focused organisations, both ixigo and Simpl are committed to providing the widest selection of travel and hotel options to customers along with the convenience of 1-Tap.

Speaking about the partnership, Rajnish Kumar & Aloke Bajpai, Co-Founders, ixigo said, “ixigo has become the leading OTA app in India for next billion users by focusing on customer experience, and our stellar product-led growth has come from removing friction in travel planning and booking process. We are delighted to now  offer a seamless checkout experience in an affordable manner by partnering with Simpl to introduce its 1-Tap Checkout on our platform to bring convenience to millions of travellers. ixigo’s deep reach in Tier 2-3-4 cities, complemented with Simpl’s 1-Tap convenience will elevate  customer satisfaction and experience on the platform as we head into the festive season, where millions of Indians will embark on journeys to celebrate together with their loved ones.”

Over the last three years, ixigo has grown to become India’s second-largest OTA by revenue and the leading player in the next billion users category.  Together with Simpl’s seamless 1-Tap Checkout, the group’s websites and apps, across ixigo trains, ixigo flights and ConfirmTkt will now enable customers to have a seamless one tap booking experience.

Nitya Sharma, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Simpl, commented, “As an organisation, we firmly believe that the best payment experience is no experience. This particularly holds true during the festive season when consumers seek enhanced convenience across the board when transacting online. Our partnership with ixigo is aimed at building trust, convenience and offering a quick Checkout experience as an increasing number of customers embark on festive travel to their hometowns, pilgrimage sites and tourist destinations among other places. Through this partnership, we are also fortifying our position in one of our fastest-growing sectors – the travel segment, while establishing ourselves as the preferred checkout partner for merchants”.

Travel has been one of the fastest growing categories for Simpl, witnessing an increase of nearly 5x in transactions over the 1.9 years, in a testament to the growing adoption of its convenient Checkout options by customers, thereby contributing to the industry’s growth. According to reports, India’s outbound tourism market is surging and set to reach $15.2 billion in 2023, with an anticipated 11.4% CAGR through 2032.