Overall growth for online leisure travel business is up
Growth rates for the US online leisure/unmanaged business travel will dip this year to 26%, compared to 29% last year.
“The market remains healthy, however, fueled by suppliers’ success at moving offline direct sales to their Web sites,” reported PhoCusWright in its recent Online Travel Overview, Fifth Edition.
By 2007, the online leisure/unmanaged business market is expected to represent nearly 40% of the total travel market, said PhoCusWright.
The bookings this year should represent nearly 30% of the entire US travel market.
The company predicts that over half of all travel will be booked online by 2007.
“Eventually, online and offline travel growth rates will converge, but through 2007, online travel bookings will increase at nearly four times the rate of the total travel market,” said the company.
Car rental firms, hotels and especially airlines are successfully driving call center bookings to their Web sites, it added.
Report by David Wilkening
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