Tourism sector to be biggest beneficiary of vaccination drive: EaseMyTrip co-founder

EaseMyTrip (Easy Trip Planners Ltd) co-founder and executive director Prashant Pitti.Premium
EaseMyTrip (Easy Trip Planners Ltd) co-founder and executive director Prashant Pitti.
 2 min read . Updated: 22 Apr 2021, 12:30 AM IST Rhik Kundu

There is huge pent-up demand for travel and tourism, and the sector will be the biggest beneficiary after vaccination picks up in India, said Prashant Pitti, co-founder and executive director, EaseMyTrip.

The parent company, Easy Trip Planners Ltd, was listed on the stock exchanges last month, and announced an interim 100% dividend of ₹2 per share on its equity shares earlier this week.

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The company has parked around ₹208 crore in its bank accounts and in fixed deposits, and has been profitable for the past 13 years, Pitti added.

This was the logic behind announcing the dividend, he said, especially at a time when travel companies are staring at an uncertain future due to the restrictions imposed by states in view of rising number of covid cases across India.

Travel will bounce back once at least 30% of the population is vaccinated and this is likely to be achieved in the coming months, as there is an intent from the government to see it through, Pitti said.

“We are a cash-rich company with zero debt in the books. Not much capex (capital expenditure) is required for future as 100% of the business is on the website or app," he added.

Easy Trip Planners’ ₹510-crore public float was subscribed 159.33 times in March.

“Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) for FY20 was ₹49.9 crore. Even in the covid year, Ebitda for nine months of FY21 was ₹43 crore," Pitti said, adding that EaseMyTrip grew 47% at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) basis between FY18 and FY20, based on gross booking revenue. “Gross booking during FY20 crossed ₹4,208 crore."

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Founded in 2008, Easy Trip Planners is an online travel agent with offices across cities, including Noida, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad.

EaseMyTrip provides flight, railway and bus tickets, holiday packages, charters and taxi services among others. The industry has seen a sharp fall in bookings in April due to the rising number of covid cases across the country, said Pitti.

“April booking is 30% less than March. But we believe in the vaccination drive, and with 3.4 million people getting jabs every day, we believe that we will beat the virus when 30% people get vaccinated," Pitti said, adding that the travel and tourism sector will be the biggest gainer of the nationwide vaccination programme.

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