21 February 2011

US OTA Transactions decline in January


There will be a fair amount of spin going on about this news.

ARC's January 2011 detailed breakdown of transactions shows a decline in Online Travel Agency activity when compared to last year.

After the significant jumps in 2010 over 2011 - we can expect a moderating level of activity but the fall was unexpected.

Clearly something is going on.

One can expect that with Orbitz and Expedia both making up a high percentage of the US OTA market and both having lowered or reduced activity on AA that there would be some effect. But I think that the fall is higher than I would have anticipated when compared to the over sectors of the market. (Corporate and general retail).

I think that the impact of the OTA's battle with AA and the resultant shift to meta search traffic sites such as Kayak and of course to AA direct is now becoming apparent.

Next month's traffic with things becoming stabilized will be an interesting statistic

Cheers

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