Online travel and the slumping economy
April 14, 2008 | Online Travel
Forrester Research's Henry Harteveldt keynoted TravelCom'08 in Chicago last week with a presentation titled Successfully Navigating Uncharted Waters. The confluence of a shaky economy and slowing online growth has marketers stumbling for answers.
The annual Travel Com Conference, produced by the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA), featured top-level executives from Forrester Research, consumer brands like Travelocity and Priceline, plus GDS companies and software providers all providing their unique perspective on the state of the online travel industry, and more importantly, where were headed.
Henry Harteveldt, vice president & principal analyst of Forrester Research, keynoted the conference with a presentation titled Successfully Navigating Uncharted Waters. The confluence of a shaky economy and slowing online growth has marketers stumbling for answers. The online travel industry has reached a point where 80% of travelers are online and growth for online bookings, which currently stands at $112 billion, has virtually stalled with only single-digit gains. Satisfaction with online bookings is decreasing as only 49% of online bookers feel its enjoyable to book a trip online, down from 53% last year. 24% of people feel its more convenient to research travel offline, versus 20% last year. Also, growth in online travel spending is expected to be greatest among the Generation X and Y generations, not the traditional boomer and senior populations that are prevalent in the group travel industry.
Get the full story at the Group Travel Blog
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