These findings and other key trends in India’s online market will be presented via a live, complimentary webinar, The State of the Internet India, on June 7. Click here for more information and to register for the webair.

Kedar Gavane, comScore’s director for India, said the online travel category continues to show strong growth in India. “The convenience of booking trips and locating travel information online continues to appeal to many users, especially among India’s young Internet population. As the online travel industry matures it will be important for brands to provide increasing functionality, ease of use and security to its users to effectively compete in this growing market.”

Travel site visitation grows 32% in the past year

The study shows that In April 2011, 18.5 million online users aged 15 or older visited a travel site from a home or work location, an increase of 32% from the previous year. Each of the top 10 properties in the category experienced strong growth in the past year.

Indian Railways led as the most-visited travel destination with 8.4 million visitors, an increase of 8% from the previous year.

Online Travel Agent sites (OTAs) secured the remainder of the four top spots in the category. MakeMyTrip reached nearly 3.9 million visitors (up 63%), followed by Yatra Online with 3.5 million visitors (up 82%), and ClearTrip.com with more than 2.1 million visitors (up 80%). US-based Expedia is in fifth position with 1.8 million visitors (up 12%).

Audience overlaps among the top three OTAs

Of the 7.1 million people visiting the top three OTAs – MakeMyTrip, Yatra Online,  ClearTrip.com –  in April, more than two million users (29%) visited two or more of the three sites.The remaining 71% checked in at only one of the three sites during the same month, demonstrating relatively strong brand loyalty among the top players.

* Both charts exclude visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.