Redis Cloud: A Powerful Real-time data platform for Online Travel Portals

The Indian travel market is experiencing rapid growth, driven by factors such as increasing disposable incomes, a growing middle class, and a rising interest in domestic and international travel.

“Indians are discovering their own country,” says Ahmed Chamanwala, the founder of the Fringe Ford, a five-room lodge in Kerala state, which sits on a 527-acre forest home to more than 400 kinds of animals. “In our initial years, most of our tourists were inbound travelers. But over the years we have seen an increase in the domestic weekend travelers from the major cities in India. Now the business is more dependent on the Indian market.”

Budget 2024: The travel and hospitality industry has expressed its disappointment with the budget, stating that some of their key demands, such as granting the hospitality industry an infrastructure status, increasing marketing and publicity budgets to boost inbound tourism, and reducing GST rates on travel and hospitality, were not met.

While there is a disappointment (or mix of opinions in the market) from the Union budget, there are good hopes from statistics that show a rise in travel.

We would like to acknowledge the government’s efforts towards galvanising the nation’s aviation industry, by doubling the number of airports and fostering holistic air connectivity that enabled 1.3 crore Indian citizens to travel by air. The focus on inclusive and sustained growth is a welcome move and will catalyse India’s progress. As India’s fastest-growing airline with an orderbook of over 200 aircraft, we are energised by the government’s continued focus on enhancing air transport infrastructure to make air travel accessible for a greater number of Indians.

(Vinay Dube, Founder and CEO, Akasa Air) Reference

This budget isn't just a set of figures—it's a passport to a future where India can shine brightly on the global tourism stage. Buckle up, as the stage is set for a thriving era of exploration, job creation, and economic prosperity. The countdown to a vibrant tourism landscape starts now!

(Nishant Pitti, CEO and Co-Founder of EaseMyTrip) Reference

The expansion of airports and the PM Gati Shakti program are pivotal in enhancing connectivity to previously unexplored regional gems. These initiatives will take domestic discovery to farther reaches of the country, thereby empowering local entrepreneurs and creating employment opportunities.

(Rajesh Magow, Co-founder & Group CEO, MakeMyTrip) Reference

Read more Key Quotes on India’s Post-Budget 2024 Reactions.

Here are some statistics about the travel market in India:?

• Market size The travel market in India was valued at $78 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow to $131 billion by 2030.?(reference)
• Online travel market The online travel market in India is expected to reach $28.4 billion by 2029.?(reference)
• Domestic tourism In 2022, domestic visitor spending increased by 20.4%, which is only 14.1% below 2019.?(reference)
• International tourism In 2022, international visitor spending increased by 81.9%, but is still 40.4% behind 2019 numbers.?(reference)
• Travel industry contribution to GDP The travel and tourism industry in India contributes 10% to the country's GDP.?(reference)
• Travel companies Some prominent travel companies in India include MakeMyTrip, Yatra, Cleartrip, Goibibo, and Booking.com.?(reference)
• Mobile apps Many leading travel companies in India have developed mobile apps for booking tickets and accommodations.?(reference)
• The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, has research and analytics resources.?(reference)?

That's a significant growth projection for the Indian travel market!

It's exciting to see the potential for such rapid expansion in the coming years. The increase in both domestic and international tourism suggests a growing interest in travel experiences and economic benefits for India.

Role of Technology:

The Indian travel market is indeed booming, and technology is playing a crucial role in its online growth. Here are few examples:

• Online bookings: The internet has revolutionized the way people book travel, making it easier and more convenient.
• Mobile apps: Mobile apps have become essential for travelers, providing on-the-go access to booking, information, and recommendations.
• Social media: Social media platforms are used to research destinations, share travel experiences, and connect with other travelers.
• AI and machine learning: These technologies are being used to personalize recommendations, optimize pricing, and improve customer service.
• Payment gateways: Secure and convenient payment options are essential for online travel bookings.

Redis Cloud is a fully managed noSQL database service integrated with Google Cloud, Azure, and AWS for production-ready apps.

Redis Cloud

Redis Cloud, a fully managed, cloud-based Redis database service, offers a powerful solution for the rapidly growing Indian travel industry. Its high performance, scalability, and flexibility make it an ideal choice for handling the demanding requirements of modern travel applications.

Redis Cloud technology plays a pivotal role in the booming travel industry in India by enabling real-time data processing and enhancing customer experiences. It supports features like instant search for flights and hotels, personalized recommendations through vector search, and seamless integration with third-party applications.

Additionally, Redis's scalability and high availability facilitate handling large volumes of transactions during peak travel seasons. This ensures a reliable and efficient service for users, ultimately boosting customer satisfaction and loyalty in a rapidly growing market.

Here are the key features of an online travel portal:

Search Functionality: Search and filtering are essential features for any online travel portal, allowing users to quickly and efficiently find the travel options that best meet their needs. Redis Enterprise, a high-performance in-memory data store, offers a powerful solution for implementing robust search and filtering capabilities in travel portals.

1. Faceting: Allow users to filter search results based on various criteria, such as price, destination, travel dates, amenities, and more. Redis Enterprise's sorted sets and hash data structures can be used to efficiently store and retrieve faceted data.
2. Geolocation-based search: Enable users to search for hotels, attractions, and other points of interest based on their current location or a specific destination. Redis Enterprise's geo data structures provide efficient algorithms for geospatial queries and indexing.
3. Full-text search: Allow users to search for specific keywords or phrases within descriptions of flights, hotels, and other travel products. Redis Enterprise can be integrated with full-text search engines like Elasticsearch or Algolia for advanced search capabilities.
4. Dynamic filtering: Update search results in real-time as users apply or remove filters. Redis Enterprise's fast data access and update times make it ideal for dynamic filtering.

Booking Management: A streamlined interface for managing reservations, cancellations, and modifications. Redis Enterprise, a high-performance in-memory data store, offers a versatile solution for managing bookings in online travel portals. Its speed, scalability, and flexibility make it ideal for handling the complex requirements of modern travel booking systems.

A few examples Redis Data Structures and their Use Cases

Hashes OR JSON:

• Store booking details: Use hashes or JSON documents to store individual booking information, including customer details, itinerary, payment information, and status.
• Efficient retrieval: Quickly retrieve booking details based on a unique booking ID. or full text search queries on indexed documents.

Lists:

• Manage booking queues: Use lists to store pending bookings and process them in a FIFO (First-In-First-Out) or LIFO (Last-In-First-Out) order.
• Implement cancellation policies: Use lists to track cancellation requests and process them according to the defined policy.

Sets:

• Store unique customer IDs: Use sets to store unique customer IDs, preventing duplicate bookings and enabling personalized recommendations.
• Manage available resources: Use sets to store available resources, such as flights, hotels, and rental cars.

Sorted Sets:

• Prioritize bookings: Use sorted sets to prioritize bookings based on criteria like booking time, payment status, or customer loyalty.
• Implement dynamic pricing: Use sorted sets to adjust prices based on demand and availability.

Streams:

• Real-time updates: Use streams to publish and subscribe to real-time updates related to bookings, such as changes in flight status, cancellations, or refunds.

User Reviews and Ratings: User reviews and ratings are essential for online travel portals to provide travelers with valuable insights and recommendations. Redis, a high-performance in-memory data structure store, can be effectively used to implement these features, offering real-time updates, scalability, and efficient data retrieval.

Here’s how you could implement a User Reviews and Ratings system for a travel portal using Redis:

• RedisJSON for Review Storage: Each review, including user details, ratings, and comments, can be stored as a JSON document.
• RediSearch for Fast Querying: Enable full-text search and filtering by rating, user, destination, or hotel.
• Redis Streams for Real-time Updates: Track new reviews in real-time for immediate display.
• Redis Probabilistic Data Structures: Prevent fake reviews and rate-limiting with HyperLogLog or Bloom filters.
• Redis Active-Active: Ensure reviews are synchronized across global regions for consistent data.

Itinerary Management: Itinerary management is a critical component of any online travel portal, providing users with a comprehensive overview of their trip plans.

• User Inputs: Collect user details such as selected flights, hotels, activities, and other preferences.
• RedisJSON Store: Store structured itinerary data (flights, hotels, bookings) in JSON format, enabling flexible updates.
• Redis Streams: Use for real-time updates (booking confirmations, changes).
• Redisearch: Allow users to search for and modify their itineraries.
• Notifications: Redis Streams can also notify users about changes or updates in real-time.
• Persistence Layer: Backup and sync itinerary data across multi-cloud or geo-distributed setups using Active-Active Redis.

Redis Vector search capabilities: Redis Vector Search can significantly enhance a travel portal by providing personalized search results and recommendations. Using vector embeddings of user preferences, behavior, and travel data, Redis Vector Search allows the travel portal to deliver tailored options for flights, hotels, and vacation packages. This enables users to find the best travel plans quickly and efficiently based on similarities in the vector space, improving the user experience. Additionally, it integrates seamlessly with Redis features like RedisJSON for storing structured travel data and Redisearch for fast queries, enhancing real-time personalization and relevance.

Rewards Programs: Rewards programs have become an essential component of online travel portals, offering incentives to customers and fostering loyalty. We'll explore how Redis can be used to create and manage robust rewards programs in travel portals.

Reward Point Storage and Retrieval:

• Store reward points for each user in a Redis hash data structure.
• Retrieve and update point balances in real-time, ensuring accurate tracking and redemption.

Tiered Loyalty Program Management:

• Define different loyalty tiers based on accumulated points.
• Store tier information for each user and update tiers as points are earned.
• Implement benefits and privileges associated with each tier, such as priority check-in, room upgrades, or exclusive discounts.

Reward Redemption and Tracking:

• Allow users to redeem points for various rewards, such as flight upgrades, hotel stays, or merchandise.
• Track reward redemptions and update user point balances accordingly.

Expiration and Validity:

• Set expiration dates for reward points to encourage timely redemption.
• Track the validity of rewards and prevent expired points from being redeemed.

Real-time Promotions and Offers:

• Store and retrieve real-time promotions and offers for different reward tiers.
• Target specific users based on their loyalty status and offer personalized rewards.

Fraud Prevention: Measures to protect users' personal and financial information. Fraud is a significant concern for online travel portals, with potential financial losses and damage to reputation.

Key Use Cases for Redis in Fraud Prevention:

• Real-time Anomaly Detection:

Unusual booking patterns: Detect abnormal booking behaviors, such as multiple bookings with the same credit card or unusual travel patterns.

Suspicious IP addresses: Identify suspicious IP addresses associated with fraudulent activity. Keep them in Redis Sets for new transaction checks.

• Risk Scoring:

Calculate risk scores: Assign risk scores to individual customers based on various factors, such as booking history, payment methods, and device information.

Prioritize investigations: Focus on high-risk customers for further investigation.

• Blacklist Management:

Maintain blacklists: Store blacklists of known fraudulent IP addresses, email addresses, or credit card numbers.

Real-time checks: Perform real-time checks against blacklists to prevent fraudulent transactions.

• Behavioral Analytics:

Analyze user behavior: Track user behavior patterns and identify anomalies that may indicate fraudulent activity.

Detect bot attacks: Detect automated bot attacks that can be used to book multiple tickets or manipulate prices.

• Payment Fraud Prevention:

Velocity checks: Using Redis vector embeddings for semantic search to Monitor transaction velocity to detect unusual patterns that may indicate fraud.

Device fingerprinting: Use device fingerprinting to identify devices that may be associated with fraudulent activity.

Redis Cloud offers a wide range of benefits for online travel portals. Its high performance, scalability, and flexibility make it an ideal choice for handling the demanding requirements of modern travel applications.

Credits: Few of the reference images and diagrams are from redis.io

Note: Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.