ONLINE TRAVEL MARKET ANALYSIS

Online Travel MarketSize and Trends

Global online travel market is expected to witness significant growth during the forecast period (2018–2026), due to high internet penetration, easy availability of online platforms, and growing travel & tourism industry, worldwide. People of age group 22 – 31 years are the main audience for the online travel market, as they are the early starters in their professional carrier and prefer to travel for commercial purposes as well as to explore new places. According to a report published by Nicholson Yachts, in November 2016, globally young age group spends about US$ 200 billion on travel every year.

Introduction of Online Platforms Changes the Online Travel Market:

Extensive use of mobile travel applications and travel websites or review websites is propelling the use of online traveling platforms as compared to conventional trip advisors.  As per Coherent Market Insights, 41% of gross travel bookings in India are done online and easy access of internet plays a key role in it. Moreover, review websites such as TripAdvisor, Expedia, and Google significantly boosts in increasing the online travel market as it helps travelers in taking traveling decision as users can get an idea about the place and other relevant issues such as availability of hotels, weather conditions, and others via these review websites. Travelers are active on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, where posts or reviews of travel destination can aid in travel decision.

Figure 1. Global Online Travel Market Share (%), By Platform Type (2017)

Source: Coherent Market Insights, 2017-18