Association of British Travel Organisers to France Conference
Revenue growth in UK online travel bookings is beginning to slow as the market matures.
Google industry marketing manager Europe, Middle East and Africa Andrew Pozniak said revenues are expected to grow by 24% this year, down from 33% last year, while the figure is expected to drop to 19% in 2008.
Despite the slowing, the UK remains the biggest European online market with 41% of all travel bookings being made via the Internet this year. The figure is set to reach 48% in 2008.
Pozniak said: “The UK is the key online travel market in Europe for Google and it’ll remain so for a long time.
“The great thing for travel providers is that people are buying online, the UK is a great place for them to be and the market is a great one for them to target.”
However, he added while customers now spend as much as 20% of the total time spent searching for a holiday online, the trade, which commits just 8% of its marketing budget to online advertising, is yet to catch up.
Pozniak added: “You have to influence consumers’ decisions as much as you can.”
He also said that despite Google holding 74% of the UK’s search engine market share, there were still no plans for it to move into the travel business itself.
However, Pozniak said the company is prepared to work with the trade to help it develop its online presence, citing the recent British Airways adverts featuring Google Earth as an example of what can be achieved.
He added: “There is no Google Travel, but we have lots of travel clients and we really want to help them.”