Indians Are Beginning to Search for Travel in the Language They Speak: MakeMyTrip

MakeMyTrip has shared fascinating early data from Myra, its Gen-AI powered trip planning assistant, showing how voice is reshaping travel discovery in India:

Voice vs Text:
- Text queries average 3–4 compressed words (“Goa hotels cheap”).
- Voice queries are longer and more expressive — 23% exceed 11 words, compared to just 7% in text.
- Example: “Show me affordable hotels in North Goa near the beach with a pool.”

Date Queries:
Voice is 3.3x higher than text, with users naturally saying “26th December to 29th” or “next Friday to Sunday.”

Informational Queries:
Voice is 2.7x higher, often in regional languages, asking about visas, documents, train schedules, or services.

Location Queries:
25.1% of voice searches are location-specific, 1.5x higher than text, with natural phrasing like “walking distance from Golden Temple.”

Linguistic Inclusivity
- Voice queries are far more diverse linguistically than text.
- Ratios of voice to text: Malayalam 46:1, Tamil 36:1, Telugu 32:1.
- Code-mixed Hindi-English users average 10.5 words per query, capturing nuance in a single request.

Premium Traveller Behavior
- Elite users articulate complex, multi-constraint queries via voice:
- “5-star villa in North Goa with private pool, 6 bedrooms, for 8 adults under ₹50K per night.”

Scale
- Myra now facilitates 50,000+ conversations daily across multiple languages.
- Over 45% of queries come from Tier-2 and smaller cities.

> “Voice is starting to give a new set of users, those who are most comfortable in their own language, a more natural way to search and plan travel,” said Rajesh Magow, Co-founder & Group CEO, MakeMyTrip.

This shows how voice + vernacular search could democratize travel planning in India, making it more natural, inclusive, and expressive.