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What do hotels really get out of providing inventory to online travel agencies through a merchant program? This article examines the costs, benefits and overall value of this model to hoteliers.
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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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Eastern Europe's travel market is a sleeping giant just beginning to wake up. The market experienced healthy growth in 2010 and 2011, and while options and demand for travel are improving, cultural barriers and the European debt crisis still hinder development. PhoCusWright's Eastern Europe Online Travel Overview sizes the total and online leisure and unmanaged business travel markets in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and the Czech Republic. The report also compares trends across product segments, provides analysis of the primary online booking channels, and highlights the key players influencing the market.
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In January 2012, the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) published Distribution Channel Analysis: A Guide for Hotels (DCA). The report presented comprehensive data and analysis on the U.S. hotel distribution landscape. The purpose of this Spotlight is to discuss the report's recommendations and provide additional perspective, including examining the role and impact of other media players (e.g., Google, Facebook and Apple) entering the hotel distribution space.
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General search engines like Google have become so ubiquitous that many users would be lost without them. In the travel category, top brands compete fiercely for general search traffic, despite their well-established names and websites. This report examines the role of general search engines in the travel planning process, and includes an overview of travelers' search engine usage by brand, motives for using search, travel products searched for and more.
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Despite rising oil prices and airfares, aggregate gross bookings of the three public U.S. OTAs – Expedia, Orbitz and Priceline – made notable increases in 1Q12. However, near-term headwinds lie in wait.
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Global distribution systems (GDSs) represent a major piece of airline transactions and a vast majority of travel agency flight, hotel and car rental transactions. But the travel agency landscape has evolved significantly, and the GDS no longer always takes center stage when agents book. This analysis examines how travel agents research and book travel products, the role of the GDS and how this varies by agency type.
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China has become a major global market for travel and tourism, and the country's online travel market - while still relatively young - is growing at a torrid pace. PhoCusWright's China Online Travel Overview Fifth Edition: The Giant Has Awoken provides comprehensive sizing and analysis of the country's online and total travel markets by segment and channel.
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On June 13, PhoCusWright presented a special live event that explores the subtle shifts that are impacting the U.S. leisure travel marketplace. Fright or Flight? Key U.S. Consumer Travel Trends examines U.S. traveler behavior and attitudes, and their impact on the leisure travel market.
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Not all is quiet on the Pacific front. Global recession and recovery, dramatic currency fluctuations, rising oil prices and surging regional travel demand have created a volatile environment for the Australia-New Zealand (ANZ) travel industry. Yet the market in 2011 grew for a second consecutive year, shielded by a resilient economy and strong local currency. Similar to North America and Europe, more than a third of all travel in the region is booked online. Yet despite its relative maturity, ANZ's online travel market will enjoy double-digit growth – almost twice the pace of the overall travel market – through 2013.
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