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Study: Web travel takes off
By David Lake
(IDG) -- While many pioneering e-commerce categories have vanished from the face of the Web, travel increasingly appears be taking off.
More than 20 million Americans have purchased airline tickets or made other travel arrangements on the Web, according to a new study from researcher PhoCusWright. In fact, travel is now the top-selling commerce category on the Net.
Half of these consumers made their very first online travel purchase last year, helping the industry ring up $14.5 billion in online sales. In 2003, Americans will spend more than $40 billion and online bookings will account for 17 percent of total U.S. travel purchases, PhoCusWright estimates.
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Sixty-two percent of travel-related sales online came from the purchase of airline tickets. And airline ticket sales will continue to dominate travel-related bookings. In 2003, 60 percent of travel-related dollars online will come from the purchase of airline tickets, followed by hotel reservations, which will account for 17 percent of sales.
Online travel agents booked the most sales last year with $7.1 billion in revenues. Travel agents will continue to see the largest inflow of travel-related bookings throughout the forecast period, with $19 billion in sales in 2003.
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