For the first time in the history of online travel bookings, they will surpass their offline counterparts this year, says eMarketer, citing PhoCusWright. It is estimated that this year there will be 41.3 million U.S. households that will book their travel online, which accounts for 52.5 percent of all U.S. households online.
Overall travel sales for 2007 in the U.S. (made up of airline, hotel, rental car, cruise and vacation package reservations) are expected to grow to $94 billion, and increase of almost 20 percent over 2006. Sales are expected to remain strong through 2010, but are expected to gradually decline.
By 2010, although overall travel sales online should reach about $146 million, the growth rate will drop to about 14 percent.
With commoditization being a potential reality for the industry, it is suggested that companies start to focus one niche groups of travelers or groups of travelers.
Another valuable addition to Web sites would be content that talks about hotels, destination guides and vacation packages, but most of it being created by users rather than marketers alone. It offers much more validity and social proof to what is offered than if marketing departments alone create the content.
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