Online Travel Industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Online Travel Industry - Essay ExampleIn the US and Europe, the leading online travelling intermediaries have taken market sh be from their offline counterparts. At the same time, an increase in have sales through travel suppliers own websites has also affected the traditional agency business.The need to balance direct and indirect channels, demand for lower cost distribution and the growth in popularity of comparison shopping are all factors driving the business model for travel specific search engines globally.It is interesting to note that the online travel market is divided into two segments leisure/un shared business travel and managed business travel (also known as corporate travel). The online booking behavior of unmanaged business travelers is indistinguishable from leisure travelers. Employees of the millions of small- and medium-sized corporations use the same websites as leisure travelers to book their business travel. Thus these two groups of buyers are treated as one c ustomer segment.Study Method It is a quantitative research based on online consumer surveys, executive surveys and market forecast models to leave behind essential analysis of consumer trends and marketing best practices, including customer segmentation and cross-selling strategies.Study Findings The needs of travelers vary widely from one multiplication segment to another although numerous travel marketers are unable to plan for the specific promotional strategies to meet the distinct needs of the different generations. Among the biggest generational differences in online behavior are infantile Travelers are an online agencys best friendConsumers of age group 18-24 spend more time on agency sites than any other generations and they have attraction for the trashy marketing campaigns of online agencies.77% of 18-24 year old travelers use more than one agency sites. The average traveler in this age group will claver 1.7 agency sites, the highest of any generational segment.From t he above graph we can clearly observe that there is an increasing trend of the younger travelers for visiting online travel agencies than the old ones.Seniors prefer booking directlySeniors (65+) overwhelmingly favor bookings flights and hotels directly on supplier sites that offer low-rate guarantees and other perksNearly 80% of the flights booked online by this generation are made at carrier sites, and 68% of hotel bookings are placed directly at chain sites, compared to lows of 72% and 58% for 25-34 years old despoil Boomers have an appetite for contentBaby Boomers (45-64) view the travel contents online for comparison when in-market for a trip.40% of the content viewed is at online travel agencies, giving aggregators an benefit in influencing this segment as they research online.Study Implication The travel companies must do the effective market research to improve online strategies to profit from this growth channel and increase the substantial share of the travel revenue.Pe rsonal Reflection Online Travel marketers should develop contents, services, and promotions targeting specific age groups that will be ideally positioned to manage their online distribution strategies