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This special collection of individual reports – curated by our team of analysts – represents Phocuswright’s most essential research, data and analysis on online travel agencies, metasearch companies and the battle for online bookings. For those seeking a better understanding of OTAs and other online intermediaries, we recommend this content as a great place to start.Analyst: Phocuswright AnalystsTopics: Consumer Trends, Market Overview & SizingSegment: Online Travel AgenciesRegions: Asia Pacific, Europe, U.S. & CanadaResearch Type: Collection
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It’s been one of digital travel’s hottest topics, and with good reason: nearly half of U.S. travelers now use it to shop for flights and hotels. So Phocuswright partnered with data analytics firm Jumpshot to dig deep into travel metasearch and understand how the big players – KAYAK, trivago, TripAdvisor and Google – stack up across flights and hotels. Phocuswright analyst Alice Jong walks us through who’s up, who’s down, who delivers more referrals and more conversions. This extended data deck is now available exclusively to Phocuswright Research Subscribers and 2017 Phocuswright Conference Attendees.Analyst: Alice JongTopic: Consumer TrendsResearch Type: Report
Hotels seeking an alternative to OTAs – and the OTAs themselves – have embraced metasearch as part of their demand acquisition strategy. While TripAdvisor currently leads the pack, competitors like Kayak and Trivago are closing the gap. This report, part of Phocuswright’s U.S. Accommodation: Clickstream & Conversion series, presents analysis of traffic trends for the U.S. online accommodation marketplace, with a focus on desktop and mobile traffic for the leading metasearch sites in the U.S. Data includes monthly unique visitors for both desktop and mobile websites.Analysts: Douglas Quinby, Cathy Walsh, Deepak JainTopic: Consumer TrendsSegment: Hotels & LodgingRegion: U.S. & CanadaResearch Type: Article
Mobile and millennials have helped make metasearch one of the most popular choices for travel planning. They’ve also inspired shifts in the metasearch model itself. This spotlight provides a snapshot of the role of metasearch in the U.S. travel market, including the overall popularity of metasearch in travel planning, top metasearch brands, and the use of metasearch sites for travel booking.Analysts: Cathy Walsh, Mark Blutstein, Douglas QuinbyTopics: Social & Search, Technology InnovationSegment: Hotels & LodgingRegion: U.S. & CanadaResearch Type: Article
Growth rates in the world of public online travel once again slowed in 2018, but remained in double-digit territory, rising more than twice as fast as the total global travel market. Collective gross bookings from 10 publicly reported companies across the globe rose 19% year over year (YoY). After tracking Ctrip’s ongoing yearly rise in anticipation, the Chinese OTA disclosed total gross booking figures for 2018 that indicate it has finally surpassed both Expedia and Booking, despite slower annual growth in Asia Pacific. Currencies rebounded in Europe but remained unstable in Latin America.Analyst: Alice JongTopic: Market Overview & SizingSegment: Online Travel AgenciesRegions: Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, U.S. & CanadaResearch Type: Article
Public online travel companies increasingly tried to be everything to everyone in the first half of 2017 (1H17), no longer satisfied with just sticking to the business of processing travel transactions or driving clicks. Eyes were on metasearch as newly public Trivago set off to pursue global ambitions, and Priceline’s Kayak gobbled up international players Momondo and Mundi. The biggest online travel agencies (OTAs) went full speed ahead integrating vacation rental options into their booking engines to keep their accommodation businesses competitive amidst private accommodations’ rising popularity. The online travel world remained resilient and optimistic as collective gross bookings by nine publicly reported companies rose.Analyst: Alice JongTopic: Market Overview & SizingSegment: Online Travel AgenciesResearch Type: Article
The advent of basic economy fares has enabled full-service U.S. airlines to offer unbundled services and compete with LCCs more effectively. Offers continue to evolve as airlines try various bundles and combinations to see what gains traction. Therefore, the shopping and booking experience is now supported by richer content as airlines seek to differentiate their basic fare offerings and ancillaries. In 2018, ancillaries account for 12% of U.S. airlines’ passenger-related revenue, and this share is expected to continue trending upward. This report presents a high-level summary of the U.S. airline segment, focusing on the need-to-know developments, trends and stories that are impacting the market now.Analysts: Michael Gerra, Cathy Walsh, Maggie RauchTopic: Market Overview & SizingSegment: AirRegion: U.S. & CanadaResearch Type: Report
Expedia and Booking.com continue to dominate the U.S. online travel agency space, and the two are making deeper inroads into segments outside flights and hotels. The two segment leaders, along with other key players such as Google and TripAdvisor’s Viator, are actively targeting the travel activities market. Meanwhile, OTAs seek other ways to gain an edge, and are exploring voice, machine-learning and chat-based functionality. This report explores the most notable trends and stories that are currently impacting the U.S. OTA landscape.Analysts: Alice Jong, Cathy WalshTopic: Market Overview & SizingSegment: Online Travel AgenciesRegion: U.S. & CanadaResearch Type: Report
While services like Expedia, Kayak and many others provide travelers access to nearly all components of their trips in one location, more often than not, bus travel options are missing from these online portals. While intercity bus has long been a popular mode of transportation in many countries across the world, in other nations it is still fighting the stigma of being a less-than-glamorous means of travel. Based in part on a series of interviews with bus aggregators, distributors and operators, this paper reviews the current state of the intercity bus market and the shift toward global online distribution.Analyst: Alice JongTopic: Technology InnovationSegment: Car Rental & Ground TransportationRegions: Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, U.S. & CanadaResearch Type: Article
Several years have passed since the initial burst of excitement over chatbots. Hailed as a cost-effective, personalized solution for marketing, customer service and sales, chatbots were suddenly on the to-do list for travel companies across segments. Platforms like Facebook Messenger and Slack made it easy for travel companies to launch simple chatbots, and many did. But once travelers had a chance to kick the tires, it became clear that there were many things chatbots and AI couldn’t do (yet). Not even giants like Facebook were immune to the fading enthusiasm.Analyst: Cathy WalshTopic: Technology InnovationResearch Type: Article