7 Travel Market Facts

1) Leading market research firms peg the core U.S. travel market (i.e., airline, lodging/hospitality, car rental, cruise, tour, travel agency sales), at $270 - $300 billion (2008) and of this total approximately 35% is online sales.

2) A Report by Jupiter Research entitled “US Travel Forecast, 2006 to 2011” suggest the online travel industry will grow by $43 billion over the next five years, reaching $128 billion in 2011.

3) PhoCusWright suggests that the online segment of the travel industry will grow at triple the growth rate of the core market.

4) Much of this growth will occur in Asia according to EyeForTravel’s The Asia Pacific Online Travel Report 2007, total online saleswill reach $55 billion by 2010 from a current base of about $25 billion in 2007.

5) The U.S. Online Trvel Agency market is highly concentrated, as four companies hold more than 97% market share. They are - Expedia, Inc (expedia.com, hotwire.com), Sabre Holdings (Travelocity.com, Lastminute.com), Orbitz Worldwide (orbitz.com, cheaptickets.com) and Priceline.

6) In Europe the market is slightly more fragmented and the top 5 online companies - expedia, Lastminute.com, ebookers, booking.com and Opodo.com - control just over 75% of OTA market share

7) Of the $80+ billion spent in online booking in affiliate marketers captured between .5 and 1.5% of the market share based on estimates from my previous post examining the size of the travel affiliate market.