Ixigo Tests Packaged Tours for Trains, Uber Becomes a New Distribution Engine

Skift Take Ixigo is taking a smart, low-risk approach to packaged travel. Rather than build and operate its own tours, it is testing demand by putting IRCTC-curated trips on its platform. If travelers bite, packaged tours could become the OTA’s next major product category. India’s Ixigo Trains on Tuesday launched Ixigo Bharat Darshan, the travel platform’s first foray into packaged tours, allowing users to discover and book curated spiritual and family travel packages from IRCTC, the state-owned railway tourism and catering company. Until now, Ixigo has largely sold individual travel components such as train tickets, flights and hotels. Bharat Darshan brings several of these together in one itinerary on the Ixigo app, while the actual packages are sourced from IRCTC. “We have never got into packages before. We were always into individual components, like flight, bus or hotels,” Dinesh Kumar Kotha, CEO of Ixigo Trains and ConfirmTkt, told Skift. “This is the first step in that journey.” For now, Ixigo is testing the waters rather than making a broad push into holiday packages. The company has built an interface for IRCTC’s existing package offerings and will use customer feedback to see how travelers