The majority of the audience at the Institute of Travel and Tourism Ivor Elms lecture predicted that as much as 30% or 50% of all travel will be booked through the Internet by 2002.
I should agreed. I work for a technology company, so I must believe technology is the panacea for the new millennium. Since I work for the leading global distribution system travel e-commerce provider in Europe you’d think I’d be particularly bullish.
My company, Worldspan, acts as the booking engine for the majority of e-commerce travel in the UK, Germany, and France. In fact in the UK we account for 80% of travel e-commerce bookings. Of course e-commerce will take over the world, won’t it? The figures are huge. Internet traffic doubles every 100 days and in three years there will be 2bn users.
However, if you look at industry forecasts for travel we are rather more circumspect about the future. Researchers expect travel to account for around a third of all transactions on the Internet by 2002 and represent $29bn worth of bookings. Impressive stuff, but still small fry compared to total travel sales. Industry experts think the Internet will account for just 12% of the world’s travel industry by 2003.
So what’s all the fuss about? Why did the audience at the Ivor Elms lecture expect so much business to come through the Internet, so quickly?
It’s partly the speed with which the world has already changed. But it’s also because we are no longer putting our toes in the water to see what it’s like. So travel companies are moving quickly from “brochure ware” on the Web to interactive sites. At Worldspan we’ve just signed up the 50th travel agent for our Dates and Destinations Web site service and we are approaching our 400th Worldspan Net customer. We’ve had these products for just under a year and things are now really taking off. Furthermore, we are inundated with requests from new e-commerce travel companies to work with us.
The companies that are doing well on the Internet are selling commodities like late deals and hotel rooms.
Research carried out earlier this year, for example, predicted that on-line hotel bookings will account for a quarter of all travel Internet revenue by 2002.
So yes, e-commerce will see double-digit growth next year, while the travel industry itself will grow only by 3%-4%. Yes, the world is changing with amazing speed and we’re all getting involved before we lose the opportunity. But don’t panic, choose your technology partners carefully and invest in what’s appropriate to your business.
The majority of the audience at the Institute of Travel and Tourism Ivor Elms lecture predicted that as much as 30% or 50% of all travel will be booked through the Internet by 2002.
I should agree. I work for a technology company, so I must believe technology is the panacea for the new millennium. Since I work for the leading global distribution system travel e-commerce provider in Europe you’d think I’d be particularly bullish.
My company, Worldspan, acts as the booking engine for the majority of e-commerce travel in the UK, Germany and France. In fact in the UK we account for 80% of travel e-commerce bookings. Of course e-commerce will take over the world won’t it? The figures are huge. Internet traffic doubles every 100 days and in three years there will be 2bn users.
However, if you look at industry forecasts for travel we are rather more circumspect about the future. Researchers expect travel to account for around a third of all transactions on the Internet by 2002 and represent $29bn worth of bookings. Impressive stuff, but still small fry compared to total travel sales. Industry experts think the Internet will account for just 12% of the world’s travel industry by 2003.
So what’s all the fuss about? Why did the audience at the Ivor Elms lecture expect so much business to come through the Internet, so quickly?
It’s partly the speed with which the world has already changed. But it’s also because we are no longer putting our toes in the water to see what it’s like. So travel companies are moving quickly from “brochure ware” on the Web to interactive sites. At Worldspan we’ve just signed up the 50th travel agent for our Dates and Destinations Web site service and we are approaching our 400th Worldspan Net customer. We’ve had these products for just under a year and things are now really taking off. Furthermore, we are inundated with requests from new e-commerce travel companies to work with us.
The companies that are doing well on the Internet are selling commodities like late deals and hotel rooms.
Research carried out earlier this year, for example, predicted that on-line hotel bookings will account for a quarter of all travel Internet revenue by 2002.
So yes, e-commerce will see double-digit growth next year, while the travel industry itself will grow only by 3%-4%. Yes, the world is changing with amazing speed and we’re all getting involved before we lose the opportunity. But don’t panic, choose your technology partners carefully and invest in what’s appropriate to your business.