Preview Travel has predicted on-line travel companies will follow the same pattern as their ‘bricks and mortar’ counterparts with a spate of mergers and acquisitions happening over the next 12 months.
Jeff Lavender, vice-president of international business development for the USon-line retailer, predicted the emergence of global mega-brands as the market matures.
Preview Travel is itself merging with Travelocity in March – a move which will create the biggest on-line travel supplier in the US with more than 20m members. In January, Expedia acquired on-line travel companies Travelscape and Vacation Spot. It claims 7m users. Other recent mergers include United Airlines with Trip.com and Rosenbluth with biztravel.com
UK-based companies will have to expand internationally if they are to compete in the global marketplace because the UKon-line market is simply not big enough, said Lavender.
“It is difficult to build a successful on-line travel company in just one European country. Companies will have to expand regionally to compete,”he added.
He pointed to eBookers which has recently struck a two-year deal with AOL Europe making them the preferred travel supplier for AOL and CompuServe in the UK, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, France and Sweden.
Lavender also predicted the emergence of multi-supplier sites. UScarriers United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines and Continental Airlines have already joined forces with foreign carriers to create one Web site offering Internet-only fares and direct booking for hotels and car rental.