MakeMyTrip and Cleartrip Test Whether Reels Can Become Travel Bookings

Travel creators know the ritual: film the airport coffee, capture the hotel room reveal, post the beach clip, then hope someone watching is planning a trip and not just doomscrolling between snacks. MakeMyTrip and Cleartrip are now trying to make that scroll do something more accountable: move a traveler toward a booking. That is the whole platform update in one sentence, and it is more practical than flashy. The creator economy is leaving the mood board and walking straight into the checkout funnel.

What changed, according to Skift and Moneycontrol

Skift reported that MakeMyTrip and Cleartrip launched creator programs in a five week span, while noting that the models are different for now. Its takeaway was blunt in the useful way: creator led travel commerce has arrived, but the hard part is proving a reel can turn into a booking. Moneycontrol described Cleartrip's move as an affiliate programme designed to turn creators into booking partners. Translation from corporate travel speak: these companies do not just want prettier trip videos, they want a cleaner line between a creator post and a purchase. That timing matters because travel is unusually suited to creator commerce, but also unusually hard to attribute. A viewer may save a destination today, compare hotels later, ask a friend next week, then book somewhere else entirely. Platforms love to call that inspiration; finance teams call it a tracking problem. MakeMyTrip and Cleartrip are now testing whether creator programs can close enough of that gap to justify sustained spend.

MakeMyTrip is courting the planning scroll, according to Skift and MakeMyTrip

Skift described MakeMyTrip's push as a relevance over reach play, with India's largest online travel platform trying to appear before a traveler is even thinking about booking. That is a very different job from simply paying for the biggest travel post of the week. The useful creator shows up while the trip is still a group chat, a saved folder, and a half serious fantasy about extending a weekend. If MakeMyTrip can enter that stage, it gets a shot at shaping the eventual booking path rather than just advertising beside it. The official MakeMyTrip Creator Circle page fills in the incentive design. It says creators can access paid collaborations, travel perks, exclusive campaigns, bonus multipliers, performance linked incentives, and learning opportunities from Meta. The page also says rewards are based on content performance and campaign participation. In platform translation, MakeMyTrip is not only dangling a link; it is trying to create a creator pipeline with training, perks, and variable rewards. For creators, that model has upside if the rules are clear. Campaign access and travel perks can help with production costs, which is not a small thing when the product is literally going somewhere. But the familiar creator economy caveat applies: performance based systems are only as fair as the reporting creators can see. If the dashboard is foggy, the program becomes another platform promise in the running tally of nice launch pages and messy payouts.

Cleartrip makes the booking partner explicit, according to Moneycontrol

Cleartrip's model, as described by Moneycontrol, is more directly affiliate shaped. The headline frames the programme as a way to turn creators into booking partners, which makes the commercial ask much clearer. That is less romantic than a creator community pitch, but honestly, affiliate mechanics have one virtue: everyone knows the assignment. The creator drives demand, the platform tracks bookings, and the program has to prove the link did real work. The important missing pieces are the ones creators should ask about before treating any travel affiliate program like found money. The available Moneycontrol evidence identifies the affiliate framing, but does not disclose commission rates, attribution windows, payout timing, or eligibility rules. Those details decide whether the program is creator friendly or just creator flavored acquisition. A beautiful travel reel is nice; a clean attribution trail is rent money.

The real test is attribution, according to Skift

Skift framed the broader question as whether companies can prove a reel becomes a booking and how much they are willing to spend before that proof is obvious. That is the entire creator commerce tension in travel right now. Platforms want creator trust, creator creativity, and creator distribution, but they also want performance discipline. Creators, meanwhile, need to know whether their influence is being counted only at the last click or across the messier path where travel decisions actually happen. The practical read is this: MakeMyTrip appears to be building a wider relationship model around creator development and campaign participation, while Cleartrip is leaning into a more direct affiliate identity. Neither approach is automatically better. MakeMyTrip's model could support creators earlier in the planning cycle, while Cleartrip's model could make booking outcomes easier to understand. The winner will be whichever program gives creators enough transparency to keep posting after the launch hype fades. For readers building in travel, commerce, or creator operations, watch the boring stuff next: attribution rules, payout reliability, creator education, and whether these programs expand beyond launch messaging. The next phase of creator led travel commerce will not be won by the prettiest reel alone. It will be won by the marketplace that can prove a saved post, a clicked link, and a completed booking belong in the same story.