Canada’s online travelers shop differently

October 01, 2007 | Online Travel

One third of all travel in Canada will be booked online this year, but with a highly consolidated air market and fragmented hotel and car rental markets, Canada's online travelers shop and buy travel very differently than their U.S. counterparts.

A new report, from PhoCusWright Inc. reveals companies seeking to participate in the surging online travel opportunity must understand the distinct dynamics of Canada. Analysis of the findings and the global online travel landscape will be presented at the upcoming Canadian e-Tourism Conference, Canada-e-Connect Vancouver by the author and lead analyst, Douglas Quinby on November 7-8. An interactive session will provide insight into the findings, and the report will provide the details that sales and marketers will need to stay ahead in the dynamic travel marketplace.

For instance, almost one third of all travel in Canada will be booked online this year (leisure and unmanaged business), but with a highly consolidated air market and fragmented hotel and car rental markets, Canada’s online travelers shop and buy travel very differently than their U.S. counterparts.

PhoCusWright’s Canadian Online Travel Overview, the first and only comprehensive study of the online travel marketplace in Canada, presents authoritative, detail-rich analysis of online travel in the country. This study is based on an extensive consumer survey of online travelers and executive interviews from across the Canadian travel industry.

“Reaching Canadians and compelling them to explore the uniqueness of their own country cannot be done without using engaging online messages, media convergence, and social communities,” says Jens Thraenhart, Executive Director of Marketing Strategy & Customer Relationship Management at the Canadian Tourism Commission. “In other words, understanding online travel consumer behavior in Canada is critical to success.”

The report finds online travel in Canada gaining momentum. In fact, the Canadian leisure and unmanaged business travel market has more than doubled in two years to reach C$6.5 billion in 2006, and is projected to nearly double again by 2009. The Internet is playing an increasingly significant role in both influencing consumer shopping and as a source of transactions, PhoCusWright concludes.

“Canada’s unique demographics, industry structure and traveler behavior make for a very distinctive travel marketplace that must be understood on its own terms,” says Douglas Quinby, PhoCusWright leisure travel analyst and author of the PhoCusWright’s Canadian Online Travel Overview. “With an in-depth look at all product segments in the total Canadian travel market, as well as rich consumer profiling, regional breakouts and projections through 2009, this one-of-a-kind report is a critical tool for making strategic decisions about doing business in Canada.”

Key findings from PhoCusWright’s Canadian Online Travel Overview include:

- Sizing of the total travel market and online leisure travel across air, hotel, car, package, cruise and rail;
- Projections through 2009 across all segments;
- Coverage and segmentation of Canada’s charter and scheduled flight markets;
- Detailed analysis of Canada’s unique online travel agency segment and its market share vs. supplier Web sites;
- Detailed analysis of Canada’s robust tour operator market, including total size and segmentation by packaged (ITC) tours, FIT and dynamic packaging; and
- Rich consumer profiling, shopping and purchasing behavior data, including:
- Incidence of travel,
- Shopping behavior across channels and product segment,
- Purchasing behavior across channels and product segment,
- Online vs. offline spend,
- Impact of search engines.