MakeMyTrip appoints Deepak Tuli as senior vice president

India's top online travel company MakeMyTrip has hired Deepak Tuli, COO of rival Goibibo, as senior vice president (growth business).

Tuli will focus on building and implementing strategies for growing new business lines in the accommodation segment for the company.

Notably, MakeMyTrip has just launched its own branded aggregator hotel label called Value+. It follows rival Yatra's TG Room and TG Stays and Goibibo's own goStays.

Indeed, Goibibo was the first mover among the large online travel agencies (OTAs) in this business that has seen the emergence of a bunch of startups such as Oyo Rooms, Zo Rooms, WudStay and Treebo Hotels, among others.

Large OTAs such as MakeMyTrip, which had initially said they had no plans to get into this side of the business, were forced to look into it as the asset-light branded startups started eating into their budget hotels business.

Some OTAs had also delisted budget accommodation of such startups recently.

Rajesh Magow, co-founder and CEO-India, MakeMyTrip, said Tuli's rich experience and knowledge of the diverse aspects of the travel e-commerce ecosystem will be an asset for the company as it prepares for the next phase of growth.

Tuli has a decade of experience in the e-commerce sector. He was a part of the launch team at Yatra, where he set up the non-air business for the company. He has a post-graduate diploma in airlines and travel-related business management from Sky Line Business School and has completed Naspers Harvard Executive Management Program in General Management.

MakeMyTrip has seen a string of senior level hires recently. Saujanya Shrivastava, CMO at Bharti AXA Life Insurance, had joined the company in January this year. The company also appointed Anshuman Bapna, founder of Mygola, as chief product officer in July after acquiring the firm.

Recently, the company's CTO Sharat Singh quit, and was replaced by Sanjay Mohan. Singh had joined MakeMyTrip in August 2014.