OTC Reports Dramatic Rise in Booking
(OTC), online travel supplier and retailer, is reporting dramatic increases in pre-Christmas sales across a number of its leading leisure travel websites, with a staggering rise in the number of holidays booked using the company`s breakthrough self-packaging technology.
Onlinetravel.com - the fastest-growing independent travel site - has seen a dramatic 184% increase in November bookings on holidays, flights and late deals worldwide compared to the same period last year, with record numbers of people taking advantage of its competitively priced Christmas and New Year breaks. Destinations such as New York, the Caribbean and South Africa are proving especially popular with Christmas holidaymakers this year.
This site has seen particularly strong growth in bookings made using OTC`s Build-Your-Own (BYO) technology, the travel industry breakthrough pioneered by OTC and launched in October 2001, enabling customers to build tailor-made deals online by combining worldwide flights and hotels; a move since followed by other leading e-travel companies.
OTC`s market-leading ski website ifyouski.com has also enjoyed a strong start to the 2002/3 season, with sales for the first week in December up 200% on 2001. These figures mark the culmination of a great 2002, which has seen sales figures up 60% from 2001. The recent cold snap has enticed ski-lovers to the slopes of Europe, with traditional destinations such as Zermatt proving as popular as usual favourites Val d`Isere, Courchevel and Meribel. The pre-Christmas boom is expected to continue in 2003, with a number of value for money deals already available on the site for next year.
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, OTC`s CEO said: “Our figures reflect a boom in the online travel marketplace generally, and demonstrate that consumers are now completely comfortable with booking holidays on the web. Since we became the first company to launch BYO technology in October 2001, we`ve seen usage grow to 26% of all bookings, across OTC`s own 15 consumer brands, and across our 60 partner sites.
Jones continues: “We are delighted that BYO has made such a positive impact. In the face of increased competition from other companies offering similar functionality we intend to continue leading this burgeoning market.”
Related stories on ITN:
(02/12/2002) OTC Launches Envoy & Signs Marketing Deal with Worldspan
(20/11/2002) OTC to Supply Build-Your-Own Technology to Zuji
(29/08/2002) OTC to Power Padi`s Move into UK Market
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