Articles tagged “online travel agencies”

Even though we're only talking about booking sites having 20 percent penetration in China, that's still a big number--between 30 to 40 million people--that continue to grow more accepting towards booking sites and the Internet on which they live.

Momondo Group is still a relatively small fish in a big pond when measured against the larger, global metasearch players. Still, the Group, with its dual-brand approach and increased investment, is obtaining some scale -- 95 million visits during the first quarter of 2016 -- and is becoming part of the conversation.

OnceThere is trying to develop a robust private label business for tours and activities but in so doing it faces the challenge of having to split the revenue with partners in a sometimes-low margin business that's largely failed to live up to expectations.

TripAdvisor's new booking product leans heavily on Priceline's Booking.com — more so than TripAdvisor would probably like.

Booking sites are prominent throughout the online trip-planning process for U.K. travelers and while they're one of the most used channels for booking, airline and hotel sites become more important when travelers are ready to pull the trigger. Offline travel agents and tour operators are big, too, but not covered by this survey.

TripAdvisor has managed to insert itself into just about every segment of travel. Like an octopus, its tentacles reach wide from accommodations to restaurant reviews. Read this deep dive to understand the company and its importance to the travel ecosystem.

Hotels are beginning to leverage the power of travel agent partners in their conflict with online booking sites.

On hotels' direct-booking rates, one of the major chains is already talking to traditional travel agencies about handing them over. In addition, Choice Hotels, for one, is signaling that better deals from online travel agencies could go a long way toward ending its boycott in distributing loyalty-member rates. If every person has a price, then so indeed do hotel chains.

Expedia is telling hotels that if they "play well" with Expedia it will be very advantageous and the outcomes may not be as positive if hotels decide to rewrite the rules. Many big chains have not appreciated how Expedia has played over the years and they are voting with their proverbial feet.

Many travel and tourism brands are harnessing the power of 360-degree video to inspire travelers, but this is the first time we've seen it used to convert direct bookings. It'll be interesting to see the results of this campaign by the end of this year.