Cleartrip’s Festive Pitch: Travel Over Shopping

Cleartrip (a Flipkart-owned travel platform) is challenging the usual festive narrative in India: instead of just shopping, the brand wants people to travel. Its recent campaign during the Big Billion Day Sale emphasises that festivals can also be about getaway experiences. 

Govind Bansal, Head of Brand Marketing at Cleartrip, points out that while many Indians treat the festival period and Diwali as shopping peaks, there’s an opportunity in the “white space” to connect travel to these sale moments. The goal is to make travel part of festival thinking, no longer an afterthought. 

Campaign Scenes & Emotional Triggers

Two of the campaign films are designed to touch homes with familiar scenarios. In one, parents nag their lazy son to book a luxurious stay. In another, a grandfather pushes his child’s parents to plan a trip, partly so they can find peace. The messages are backed by affordability, Cleartrip is offering competitive rates to lure people into travel decisions.

These films are built to evoke emotional connections, homesickness, the need for rest, the joy of exploration, instead of just the material pull of discounts.

New Travel Trends: Gen Z, Spirituality, Solo Trips Rising

Cleartrip’s internal data tracker, PeekABoo, reveals interesting shifts in traveller behaviour:

• A 60% year-on-year increase in bookings to spiritual destinations like Haridwar, Rishikesh and Dehradun. 

• Gen Z is taking more solo trips, with their share of solo travel exceeding that of older groups by about 7%.
  

• The same Gen Z group shows a 15% annual increase in those spiritual journeys.
  

These trends give Cleartrip data-backed ammunition to pitch its festive offers in ways that resonate differently with younger travellers. 

Deals & Offers to Make Travel Easier

To support its message, Cleartrip has introduced a set of offers aimed at reducing hesitation and increasing travel bookings during the festive season:

• Free visa-denial cover, which refunds the ticket if a tourist visa is rejected.
  

• A child-free ticket offer for families booking two tickets: kids up to age 12 travel free.
  

• Complimentary meals when booking through their app or website, adding value beyond just savings. 

These incentives are part of Cleartrip’s effort to reduce friction and make decisions easier for travellers. 

Digital-First Approach & Wide Audience Reach

Cleartrip is putting most of its budget into digital channels. According to Bansal, about 95% of the campaign spend is allocated to digital, with a small remainder for activations. 

The campaign uses Instagram-first clips, short-form content, and connected television to stay top-of-mind. The creative scenarios are designed to feel relatable across different demographics, young people, families, different income tiers, so the message lands broadly.

Why This Matters for the Travel & Festive Landscape

In a market where festival time is almost automatically associated with shopping, Cleartrip’s campaign attempts to change behaviour and perception. By leveraging sales events like Big Billion Days, offering meaningful travel incentives, and embracing trends like solo travel and spiritual journeys, they aim to carve a space where travel becomes a natural part of festival spending.

If Cleartrip succeeds, festivals in India may come to mean more than new clothes or gadgets, they might become markers of experience, memories, exploration. That could be a shift in how brands market, how people spend, and what consumers expect from festive seasons.