Study projects one third of travel bookings soon will be online
By the end of next year, travelers will book one third of the world’s travel sales online, according to a new PhoCusWright report.
Online leisure/unmanaged business travel bookings will grow twice as fast as the total market, to surpass US$313 billion by 2012.
“PhoCusWright’s Global Online Travel Overview Second Edition” compares four major regions – the US, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America — revealing a global travel industry still recovering from the 2009 recession, which triggered a 13 percent decline in global sales,” the company says.
PhoCusWright projects that global travel bookings will increase 6 percent in both 2011 and 2012, at which time the market will recover from 2009 losses.
Among the four regions studied, the US and Europe represent more than three fourths of all online sales, but less than two thirds of total travel sales.
“As online travel bookings in the emerging markets of Asia Pacific and Latin America accelerate, combined share for Europe and the US will fall to 73 percent in 2012 and continue to decline thereafter,” the report says.
"As online penetration growth in the more mature US and European travel markets slows, travel companies are looking to the Asia-Pacific and Latin America regions for the next pot of gold," says Lorraine Sileo, vice president, research. She added:
"In these emerging markets, macro-economic gains, increased travel and growing technology adoption will continue to fuel significant growth in online bookings."
By David Wilkening
David
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