GetThere claims 36,000 European trips a month

European users of online corporate travel self-booking system GetThere booked a record 36,000 trips in July. 

GetThere claims to be the first corporate online travel reservation system to reveal the size of the European market for self-booked business travel and challenged competitors to disclose their own figures.

Floyd Widener, vice president of GetThere and corporate travel at Sabre Travel Network, said: “I could tell you we saw year-on-year booking increases in Europe of 104 per cent in Q1 this year, and 138 per cent in Q2.

“But GetThere has been seeing triple-digit, year-on-year percentage growth in Europe for so many quarters now that it no longer means anything to industry-watchers. 

“It’s time to start putting out some hard numbers to help procurement managers, travel managers and travel management companies assess the real growth and potential of these systems.”

He believes GetThere is the leading player in Europe, but says he will have to wait for rivals to publish figures before being able to prove it.

“In the absence of other industry figures it’s hard to benchmark our performance, but from what we’ve managed to glean we believe GetThere is the most widely-used system in the region. If anyone else wants that title they’ll have to publish better like-for-like figures,” said Mr Widener.

By “like-for-like”, GetThere says he is referring to trip figures. A trip is normally a combination of different bookings, such as a rail journey combined with a hotel stay.

“We believe these criteria represent a common denominator and would help give the industry an accurate idea of the real volume of European self-booked business travel,” said Mr Widener. “They would also provide a benchmark for future market growth and penetration.”

He said the European booking numbers were small in comparison to global figures – GetThere claims to process more than a million bookings a month globally – but growth in the region was both “sustained and dramatic”.

“Two years ago we were delighted when our monthly trip numbers for the region reached 6,000.  If we can sustain this kind of growth we’ll be approaching the booking levels of more mature self-booking tool markets very soon.”

Mr Widener claimed that full disclosure of relevant European trip numbers by all similar companies was in the interests of the travel management sector as a whole.

“It’s time to stop being coy about numbers,” he added.  “Our customers know what they’re booking, as do their travel management companies, but it’s time other companies out there see that these systems are being embraced and are making an impact.”

Report by Phil Davies