Sep 20, 07 | 1:59 am
According to PhoCusWright's European Online Travel Overview Third Edition , the European online leisure/unmanaged business travel as a percentage of the total travel market will approach 25% in 2007, the level achieved in the U.S. in 2004, proving that the overall travel market is marching relentlessly online. But while the pace may be similar to that of the U.S. market of a few years ago, the gait is decidedly different.
The individual markets of Europe, in particular the top five - U.K., Germany, France, Spain and Italy - continue to experience significant online growth, but at dramatically different overall levels. The chart below illustrates the market share that each country had of the overall online leisure and unmanaged business travel in Europe in 2006.
These five markets display the variety of paths online that developing e-commerce economies take. Cultural, technological, strategic and fiscal forces have shaped the online markets of each of these five largest European countries, and PhoCusWright's new set of studies on these markets delve into the drivers and the likely effects of these forces. For example, in Germany where Internet access is widespread and online purchasing is well established despite a relative aversion to credit card usage, travel purchase incidence is extremely low among both online buyers and frequent Internet users. Compare this to the U.K., where access is also ubiquitous and online purchasing routine, but more than twice as many online buyers and regular Internet users buy travel than in Germany. Meanwhile, Italy and Spain share similar connectivity profiles, but a much higher proportion of regular users of the Internet in Spain purchase travel online than in Italy.
PhoCusWright's European Online Travel Overview Third Edition is now available for purchase. It includes an overview of the European market (including total and online gross bookings by sector and channel, online direct by segment, and pan-European online travel agencies market share) as well as local market coverage for the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Five individual country reports (U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Spain) are also available for purchase. Each individual country report contains the European market overview along with the specific local market content (U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Spain).
