New Delhi, April 17 (IANS): In an effort to boost online holiday bookings in India, the Indian travel industry has joined hands to host the Great Indian Travel Festival (GITF) to be held from April 18 to April 26.

Timed at the beginning of holiday season in India, the online festival will see participation from leading players of the industry like Cleartrip, MakeMyTrip, Goibibo, Yatra, Via, Google India and airlines such as Jet Airways, Indigo, British Airways and SpiceJet.

Hosted and marketed by IPG Mediabrands, the travel festival would offer users great deals and discounts on travel and stay packages to more than 50 holiday destinations both within and outside India, read a statement.

"We are confident that Indian consumers will find great value and deals to enjoy their summer holidays. We expect to reach over 3 million users over the course of the nine days festival and make it a big success," IPG Mediabrands' CEO Shashi Sinha said in the statement.

Users will be able to get up to 50 percent off on luxury hotels across India, discounts on cruise packages, Rs.15,000 off on holiday packages anywhere in India and many great deals and discounts on air tickets.

Saujanya Shrivastava, CMO, MakeMyTrip.com says the initiative will "serve to heighten interest in the online travel category".

"Travellers planning their summer holiday will find great offers and deals across different categories at one platform. We are keen to track how this influences the traditional travel planning and purchase cycle," Shrivastava said in a statement.

Subramanya Sharma, CMO of Cleartrip.com is looking forward to launch a new product exclusively in GITF.in in our endeavour to make travel simple.