But let's talk about the road ahead as well. The market has changed, the competitive landscape is different, technology is completely different, and the Indian consumer is far more savvy with a bit more discretionary income. What do the next 25 years look like? When you say the best is yet to come, capture that for me.
The next 25 years for all businesses, including travel, will be driven by the macro story of India's outlook. Travel is now the top priority for disposable income, surpassing material possessions. There's a behavior reset: people want to spend on experiences, not things. We see frequent travelers taking more trips. Short-term vacations and the YOLO phenomenon are here to stay. Gen Z and the sharing economy mean people don't want to own assets. Even professionals like my brother, a lawyer, chooses to rent. New use cases are emerging: celebration travel for long weekends, break-up parties, and a proposal economy. Young Indians are traveling to exotic locations like the Sahara desert for proposals. Everyone is realizing that time is the most valuable resource, so they want to create memories through travel. All of this is great news for the travel business.
And the best part for us at MakeMyTrip is when all stakeholders benefit. When we IPOed, the high point was not just the milestone, but that 80% of the stockholders benefited. Many employees didn't even believe the stock had value and lost the paper, but finance had records. It was really satisfying.
You're now sitting on a very strong balance sheet with record profitability. What does that mean for fueling future aspirations, diversification, and entering ancillary businesses?
5 more exchanges in this transcript
Sign in free to read the rest of this interview. No card required.
Magow, R. (2025, July 1). How The MakeMyTrip Founders Remained Unfazed Through The Covid Chaos | CNBC TV18 [Interview transcript]. CNBC-TV18. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1054721/
MLA
Rajesh Magow. "How The MakeMyTrip Founders Remained Unfazed Through The Covid Chaos | CNBC TV18." CNBC-TV18, 1 Jul. 2025. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1054721/.
BibTeX
@misc{magow2025_1054721,
author = {Rajesh Magow},
title = {How The MakeMyTrip Founders Remained Unfazed Through The Covid Chaos | CNBC TV18},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, CNBC-TV18. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2025},
month = {jul},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1054721/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
