You left a position as a partner with KPMG to go into the Indian tourism industry -- an industry that accounts for a very small portion of the world's global travel receipts and arrivals today.  What makes you optimistic about the future of tourism in India?

Over the next 2 decades a very large number of Indians will transit to becoming the consuming middle-class. An interesting trend I expect in this consumption growth will be the disproportionate growth in “experience” purchases over product purchases. The two most obvious “experience” purchases for the rising Indian middle class will be vacation travel & eating out. Therefore, I have taken a plunge into the world’s most exciting travel market. The size of the market looks very large and the timing seems right.

Actually, a lesser known fact is that Tourism is already pretty big in India today. Let me explain. Indians take a very large number of domestic trips for purposes other than work or business. For instance, pilgrimage travel alone, if accounted properly will represent a significant volume. The problem is that domestic tourism in its various segments, has never been properly accounted (an unfortunate legacy of India’s preoccupation with inbound western tourists).

Your site, HolidayIQ, is a community-led holiday information site for Indian travelers which draws its information from other Indian travelers. How mature do you think the travel and tourism market is in India when one considers the ease with which tourists can find good, helpful information about the various attractions around the country?

Travel information & holiday information is (relatively) at its nascent stages in India. It is nascent in its demand as well as in its availability. As Indians travel more and start to take more independent vacation trips, the need for reliable holiday information is set to explode.

The purpose of HolidayIQ is to become the “trusted advisor” to Indians on holidays. This will cover domestic tourism as well as travelling abroad. One key plank of this is to bring the views & feedback of other travellers to a wide Indian audience. We see this as part of the worldwide trend towards what TrendWatching calls “Curated Consumption”.

One could assume that those using and contributing to a site like HolidayIQ would be foreign visitors to India and the Indian upper class with the disposable time and income to travel.  What effect do you see from India's growing middle class with respect to tourism in the country?

HolidayIQ is creating the first non-western view of world vacationing – therefore western inbound tourists are not a focus segment for us. Indian tourists (including the diaspora), travelling within India or abroad are our focus segment.

The primary connect method for HolidayIQ is the internet; therefore only those people with access to an internet connection are natural users of the site. As the internet user base in India increases and becomes more broad-based, the user base too will reflect this.

Looking at feedback from your site's travelers, what trends do you see in India tourism?  For example, are certain places losing their appeal while others are becoming more popular?

The two strong trends are (1) the growth in short breaks / weekend breaks and (2) the growth of the small-town traveller.

Increasing prosperity, increasing prevelance of small nuclear families and increasing pressure on time (ie inability to go away for many days together from work) has resulted in many more short vacations (2 to 3 nights). One of the most popular features on HolidayIQ is the “Weekend Search” feature which allows users to find vacation options by distance from 17 cities across India.

Another interesting feature is the fast growth in usage from small-town India (ie. from outside the top 7 cities). Over the last year, almost 60% of incremental usage of the site has come from smaller towns & cities.