Orbitz for Business today
announced the results of a national survey that reveals the majority of
business travelers are equally or more cost-conscious when it comes to
saving their company money in 2004. According to The Orbitz Business
Travel Survey conducted online by Harris Interactive(R), 83% of business
travelers feel “more” (30%) or “as” (53%) obligated to save their company
money when traveling for business this year.
The survey also found that business travelers prefer to go online to book
their travel almost 2 to 1 versus using a traditional corporate travel
agency. Thirty-five percent of business travelers plan to use an online
agency like Orbitz to book business travel in 2004, while only one in five
(19%) said they would use their company’s in-house corporate travel agent.
Less than one in ten (8%) would use leisure travel agents for their
business travel needs.

“Since we launched Orbitz for Business, we’re hearing from more companies
with legacy travel programs that their travelers are scouring our site to
find lower fare and rate options,” said Rick Weber, vice president of
Orbitz Business Travel Services. “Orbitz for Business customers have the
best of both worlds: employees can use the convenient and familiar Orbitz
interface to book their business travel and at the same time save their
company a bundle of money.”

The Harris Interactive(R) survey also validates discontent with the
corporate travel agency. For business travelers who use corporate agents,
42% feel their corporate travel agent does not always give them the lowest
price and 44% believe that corporate agents charge high service fees. In
addition, more than one in three (36%) business travelers frequently
search online to see if they can find a better deal than their corporate
agent.

According to the new survey, 84% of business travelers cite convenience as
a reason why they plan to book business travel online in 2004; 69% cite a
preference for self-service.

The growth of online travel agencies has influenced the work-play trend as
well. According to the survey, 35% of business travelers plan to include
personal vacation time in at least one of their planned business trips
this year.

Orbitz for Business offers savings of up to 20% off a company’s total
travel budget through a combination of lower transaction fees and a broad
range of lower fare and rate inventory. Orbitz for Business’ online
booking fees are as low as $5, substantially less than the average $40-$60
charged by offline agents.

Methodology

Harris Interactive(R) fielded the eleven-question study from March 1-3,
2004, via its QuickQuery(SM) online omnibus service, interviewing a
nationwide sample of 2,272 U.S. adults (18+), of whom 733 are employed and
plan to travel for business at least once in 2004. In theory, with a
probability sample of this size, one can say with 95 percent certainty
that the survey’s results have a statistical precision of plus or minus 5
percentage points of what they would be if the entire adult online
population who are employed and who plan to travel for business at least
once in 2004 had been polled with complete accuracy. This is not a
probability sample. Data for the overall sample were weighted to be
representative of the total U.S. adult online population on the basis of
region, age within gender, education, household income, and race/ethnicity.
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