November 22, 2006

Overall, U.S. online travel revenues are expected to reach about $128 billion in less than five years from now, according to a new market report from JupiterResearch.

"Online travel revenue in the US will continue to increase rapidly from even this year," said Jupiter analyst Diane Clarkson.

"Factors that will accelerate online travel spending are greater consumer wallet share, increasingly sophisticated products available on the Internet today and greatly improved online compliance in business travel" added Clarkson.

As a comparison, eMarketer's estimate of this year's U.S. online travel sales is somewhat more conservative at $77.7 million.

comScore Networks put first-half 2006 online travel sales at $34.7 million, a year-over-year increase of about 14.7 percent.

While exact numbers may not always match, all sources agree that online travel sales are continuing to increase steadily.

Looking at airline travel sales alone, Jupiter asserts that higher fares and an increase in the number of people flying are driving total air revenues to $138 billion this year, with $49 billion of it spent online.

Overall forecasts that that figure will grow to $72 billion in about five years from now.

Hotels are also noticing a strong shift to online sales as more travelers migrate from making reservations over the phone to online, particularly on the hotels' own websites.

Source: eMarketer