China’s travel market and Internet-based travel consolidators will experience strong and steady growth in the next few years, driven by increasing independent travel and China’s robust economic growth, Deutsche Bank said.
China’s leading online travel consolidators, Ctrip and eLong, currently hold two to three pct of the travel market but are poised to capture the lion’s share of market growth.
‘We believe that the leading travel consolidators are well positioned to eventually dominate the entire travel industry in China,’ the brokerage said in a research report.
Ctrip, which Deutsche Bank estimates holds 50 pct of the market for hotel bookings, and rival eLong which holds 20-25 pct, will dominate the market due to their control of hotel supply and air ticket and hotel room demand as well as an industry-wide move from tour-group travel to independent travel.
More: travelindustrywire.com
Related Travel Information
It's the height of the summer travel season. So which is cheaper- booking trips over the Internet or using a travel agent? NewsChannel 5's Ann Rubin put them to the test.
We're pitting a travel agent against several online sites. The assignment is to book two trips from St. Louis: one to New York City, the other to London.
This experiment has specific rules. Everyone must search at the same time and for the same dates. The goal is to find the best possible price on airfare and a hotel for two people.
Our first volunteer, KSDK Web Coordinator Diana Melton, searched Orbitz.
New Zealand's biggest travel agent, Gullivers Travel, has beaten its own forecasts on all key fronts in its maiden public report since listing in December.
Tax-paid profit was $3.03 million for the four months ended March 31, up 14 per cent on its forecast.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were 6.4 per cent up on the prospectus forecast at $8.526 million.
Total group revenue for the year to March 31 was $445.3 million, 13 per cent more than last year.
Gullivers managing director Andrew Bagnall said forecasts had been "realistic" but the travel market had stood up well.
Cheap airfares will sustain robust growth in outbound travel over the coming year despite an economic slowdown, Gullivers Travel Group Ltd.'s (GLS.NZ) managing director said Wednesday.
Andrew Bagnall also said he is currently considering acquisition opportunities to expand the business, which is already the largest outbound travel company in New Zealand.
Bagnall, who is also Gullivers' founder, told Dow Jones Newswires the company is well positioned to exceed its prospectus forecast for the current fiscal year ending March 31.
"Evidence shows outbound travel spending on tickets continues to grow and usually multiplies by 2 to 3 times (gross domestic product)
Travel insurance company adds domestic partners to list of offerings
Same-sex domestic partners are now treated the same as married spouses and other family members by Travel Guard International, which bills itself as the world’s largest travel insurance company.
That means that gay and lesbian travelers who purchase Travel Guard insurance can be reimbursed if they cancel a trip due to an illness or medical emergency with a domestic partner, previously an option offered by Travel Guard only to legally recognized family members.
“Most trip cancellation claims are for some sort of illness or injury to a family member, and certainly in
UAE residents spent $ 4.9 billion (Dh 18 billion) on outbound travel in 2004. According to a recent report on the UAE outbound travel market, which stated that in 2004, 2.86 million trips were undertaken by UAE outbound travellers with total expenditure amounting to $ 4.9 billion.
69 per cent of the trips were for leisure and VFR purposes, 26 per cent for business and 5 per cent for medical, religious and other purposes. Altogether, UAE travellers spent 51.1 million nights on international trips in 2004, of which 87 per cent were spent on leisure and VFR trips.
Gautam Sen Gupta,
