JupiterResearch did some digging in the metrics for the online travel market in the U.S. and came up with some big numbers in the coming years. Their report entitled, “U.S. Travel Forecast, 2005 to 2010,” predicts $68 billion by the end of 2005 and $104 billion by 2010.
Jupiter says their study reveals travel revenues are up and inventory and passengers are increasing because rates for air, car and hotels are down.
“We are seeing strong increases in revenue across all segments of the online travel industry,” said Diane Clarkson, Analyst at JupiterResearch. “Higher fuel costs will remain a major challenge for the travel industry in the near future, as the industry struggles to compensate for additional costs while remaining price competitive,” added Clarkson.
They state supplier web sites continue to be bulk of online travel sales with 56% of online travel revenue in 2005. They said travel search engines like Sidestep and Kayak are still fairly new and haven’t gained much traction yet.
They say one major drive will be business travel, stating sophisticated managed booking tools and increased business traveler compliance with company booking policies will spur the online managed business travel market to reach $31.5 billion by 2010 from $15.1 billion this year.
“We expect the online travel market to continue its strong growth over the next five years and to represent 34% of all travel spending in 2010,” said David Schatsky, Senior Vice President of Research at JupiterResearch. “The online share of total travel spending in the U.S. is quite high and its lower distribution costs are an important factor in holding down expenses for the travel industry,” added Schatsky.
John Stith is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
