TravelCLICK released quarterly eMonitor results today showing that worldwide hotel room nights and revenue, booked electronically through the Global Distribution Systems (GDS) during the third quarter of 2001 decreased versus the same period last year.
Room nights were down 7% over the third quarter of 2000 while revenue was off 12%, as average rate declined by 5%. The entire room night decrease was due to September’s impact, as July and August both displayed year-over-year gains.
Despite the third quarter results, GDS room nights for the first nine months of 2001 remained ahead of last year by 0.5%. This slight growth in GDS e-commerce contrasts with
year-to-date declines in total hospitality industry room nights of 2.5% and more reported for the U.S. and many other markets. On a year-to-date basis, GDS e-commerce revenue
declined 0.2%, as ADR fell 0.7%. Length of stay has been stable at 2.14 nights both in 2001 and 2000 year-to-date.

The eMonitor results were compiled from TravelCLICK’s comprehensive database, which is the exclusive source of hotel industry electronic distribution data from the Amadeus,
Galileo, Sabre, and Worldspan GDSs. TravelCLICK’s data also includes consumer online GDS hotel bookings made through many of the major Internet travel sites, such as Travelocity and Expedia.

Travel Agent Component

Travel agent bookings still remain the dominant source of hotel e-business, representing over 95% of total GDS room nights. The travel agent component of GDS declined 8.4% in room
nights and 12.8% in revenue compared to the third quarter of 2000.

Internet Component

Despite the impact of September 11 and the soft third quarter in general, the Internet (consumer online) component of the GDS continued to display growth. Internet room nights,
excluding bookings from auction sites, grew 36.1% in the third quarter of 2001. Average rate was down for GDS Internet related bookings by 5.7% from the third quarter of 2000.

Electronic hotel bookings made by travel agents continued to grow through August, despite the recent downturn in total lodging industry bookings. September was a different story,
as the immediate impact of the terrorist attacks resulted in a 40% slide in bookings for the week following September 11th. However, GDS room nights recovered quickly so that, for the
entire month of September, GDS room nights were down 21.8% from last year,” said Bruce W. Mainzer, senior vice president of marketing for TravelCCK“Gngrzdwhe
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inr at tt0vew� t iacofepmb, @nser online spendi�g for travel again posted!an increase. Consumer online boojings made through GDS powered web sites
like Travelocity and Expedia represent approximately 15% of `ll hotel bookings made over the Internet. Assuming tie same heqlthy growth rates that we are seeing on the GDS,
year-to-date consumer online hotel revenues on the entire Internet have grown by over $700 million.”

TravelCLICK is the leading provider of digital media and data solutions to the worldwide travel industry. The company’s products help hotels and other travel industry suppliers improve profits through electronic distribution channels. 

 

 

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