TravelCLICK has released results showing that hotel industry room nights and revenue booked electronically during the first quarter by travel agents and consumers grew at a rapid rate.
Room nights were up 6% over the first quarter of 2000, and revenue, fueled by a 4% increase in average rate, was up a dramatic 10%. This growth in GDS business occurred despite a market that witnessed a slight drop in total U.S. occupancy for the first quarter The results were compiled from TravelCLICK`s comprehensive database, which is the exclusive source of hotel industry electronic distribution data from three of the largest GDS: Galileo, Sabre and Worldspan. TravelCLICK`s data also includes consumer online hotel bookings made through retail online travel agencies. These Web sites, which include Travelocity and Expedia, represent approximately 17% of all consumer hotel online bookings made over the Internet.
Travel agent bookings are far and away the dominant source of hotel e-business, representing 95% of total GDS room nights. This travel agent component of GDS grew 8% in revenue over the first quarter of 2000. Additionally, TravelCLICK statistics showed a very significant increase in the Internet component of the GDS. Internet room nights, excluding bookings from auction sites, grew 119% in the first quarter of 2001. Average rate was down for Internet related bookings by 5% from the first quarter of 2000.
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