As the online leisure/unmanaged business travel market in the U.S. has matured, supplier Web sites and online travel agencies (OTAs) appear to have reached relatively stable market share, a new report from travel industry research authority PhoCusWright Inc. reveals.
PhoCusWright’s Online Travel Overview Eighth Edition, finds that supplier sites account for 61% of the online market [...]

[ Read more → ]

The average price for hotel rooms across the world fell over the summer, according to the Hotels.com Hotel Price Index. The average price paid by travellers for a room during the period July-September 2008 fell by 3% globally, when compared to the same period in 2007.
This is the first year-on-year fall in prices measured in [...]

[ Read more → ]

The multi-billion dollar medical travel sector could become an important new source of demand when traditional demand drivers are under increasing threat.
According to Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels’ most recent research FocusOn Medical Travel – fad or focus for hotel operators and investors?, the medical travel sector has potential to develop into a lucrative niche market [...]

[ Read more → ]

For decades, luxury hotels have been oases for travelers in developing countries. But last week’s lethal attacks on two of India’s most famous hotels have underlined the extent to which these hotels are becoming magnets for terrorists.
Hotel executives and security experts say that little can be done to stop extensively trained gunmen with military assault [...]

[ Read more → ]

Travel and transportation companies need to revamp their loyalty programs to ” replace reluctant allegiance with genuine loyalty,” according to a new paper from IBM.
In addition, the U.S. market is saturated with only 40% of loyalty-program memberships considered active despite ever-increasing membership. That means people aren’t using the loyalty rewards they’re earning.
“Overall, it’s a pretty [...]

[ Read more → ]

For me, it all began some time ago with an article, written by a web marketing company, which asserted ‘Do you know what people are saying about your hotel on the Internet?’ That company even offered to monitor social media for individual hotels, as if a comment made on FaceBook would or could impact your [...]

[ Read more → ]

The economy may be bad around the world, but consumers are still planning trips, even if the research won’t become anything more than research. With more consumers turning to online networks to research, marketers could benefit from a bit of travel advertising.
According to a recent report from comScore, Travel Ad Network (TAN) is the top [...]

[ Read more → ]

I think it’s time to slow-down, sit-down, and evaluate the impact of the Internet on hotel sales. For the past several years, hotels have been scrambling to have a meaningful presence on the Net, but few hoteliers appear satisfied with the results. For many hoteliers, it’s been a challenge to measure sales results from their [...]

[ Read more → ]

Calling the airline is a thing of the past. US business travelers surveyed who flew more than six times during the previous 12 months preferred to book their trips online instead of by phone or e-mail. That held true whether the travelers booked directly with suppliers or had their corporate travel departments handle the bookings.
The [...]

[ Read more → ]