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As travelers hop from site to site cobbling together their perfect trips, their mouse clicks yield important clues to the shifting dynamics of the online travel marketplace. PhoCusWright partnered with New York-based Experian Hitwise to identify key trends influencing how consumers plan travel online. PhoCusWright's U.S. Online Travel Traffic Report analyzes the most important categories in the travel vertical, revealing traffic patterns for both transactional and nontransactional travel websites and providing a top-level view of visitation and both upstream and downstream traffic.
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In 2011, Europe's total and online markets continued their recovery from the recession and enjoyed healthy overall growth. Despite this success, however, slowed growth is expected in the next several years as the debt crisis nips at the economy's heels. PhoCusWright's European Online Travel Overview Eighth Edition provides comprehensive analysis, sizing and forecasts of the region's total and online leisure and unmanaged business travel markets, breaking them down by segment and channel and giving special attention to the six major markets: France, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, Spain and the U.K.
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The Benelux region – comprising Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg – is frequently viewed as a homogenous geographical area rather than separate countries with unique travel-specific characteristics and trends. This Spotlight examines the online and total travel markets in this small but dynamic region, identifying key similarities and important differences between the individual country markets it includes.
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While the economy - and the travel industry - didn't improve as much in 2012 as everyone hoped, U.S. travelers remain resilient. PhoCusWright's U.S. Online Travel Overview Twelfth Edition hashes out the impact of the current economic uncertainty on the industry and delves into the dynamics of the industry's near future. In addition to market sizing and growth forecasts by travel segment and distribution channel - including mobile - the report tracks the technology trends that will shape the industry through 2014.
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The stats for August were fine. Hotel occupancy was up strongly, after posting a nothing-to-brag-about increase of less than 1 percentage point in July. ADRs rose, RevPAR was up and airplanes continued to run more than 85% full. So far, so good. Then Spain's budget came out, rioters hit the streets, and we were all reminded that the macro cloud hanging over businesses of all kind hasn't gone anywhere. Priceline shares, always sensitive to Europe, shed more than 1%. Other travel shares also gave up gains from earlier in the month.
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The second quarter of 2012 was challenging for U.S. public online travel agencies (OTAs) – Expedia, Orbitz and Priceline. While domestic business was resilient for most, relatively weak travel demand in Europe meant that growth from overseas operations was muted across the board.
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With uncertainty still lingering over many of the world's economies, consumers have grown increasingly careful about their travel spending. A range of influences and information sources impact how consumers decide where to go, and travel behavior varies considerably across different markets. This report explores how the process of destination selection is evolving, and in particular how this process differs between travelers in the U.S., France, Germany and the U.K.
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European tour operators continue to face financial hardship, thanks to competition from online travel agencies and supplier-direct sales. But efforts to improve their product mix and flexibility, differentiate themselves through customer service, and update their business models may yet keep tour operators in the game.
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Asia Pacific's bustling economies have enjoyed striking growth in travel demand over the past several years. Airlines and hotels are benefiting from growing business and leisure travel demand, and online travel agencies - both local and global - continue to outperform the overall market. PhoCusWright's Asia Pacific Online Travel Overview Fifth Edition provides comprehensive sizing, analysis and forecasting for the region's 13 travel markets, with special emphasis on its five major markets: China, India, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
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Does online travel know something other industries don't, or is the category whistling before an economic storm? It's an interesting question as we look at June's data, plus stock prices and some earnings reports coming in during July. Early earnings performance from Expedia was excellent, and the hotels are doing well (though hotel stocks are weakening) and the airlines are benefitting from cheaper fuel, higher load factors and a general, welcome discipline that comes from having been whipsawed by cycles before. And yet ... the question is whether – or how long – this can last in the face of a weakening economy and a looming fiscal cliff.
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