Beating out Airlines reservations, Hotel rooms were the most purchased component by online travel shoppers last year.

According to the PhoCusWright Consumer Travel Study Tenth Edition, this change was a result of consumers’ needs to change in venue in order to disconnect and enjoy their vacations.

With the explosion of online shopping outlets and new features, as well as more availability, shoppers were able to find more unique and best deal options than before.

“Online travel agencies benefited well from this trend, attracting consumers through great availability at a wide breadth of hotel options,” said Susan Steinbrink, senior research and corporate market analyst at PhoCusWright. “But they too will feel the impact that the 2008 recession and flight capacity reductions will have on the hotel sector.”

The report focused primarily on leisure travelers but gives good indications for the entire US Travel market.

The report also noted that there was a large upswing in online travelers, defined as adults who have taken a commercial flight and stayed in a hotel for leisure in the past year and had used the internet in the past 30 days.

It also noted that more than 50% of travelers used the same online outlet for planning and booking business travel and leisure travel, suggesting big opportunities for cross-selling.

Source

Trackback URI | Comments RSS