This year, online travel agents (OTAs) have experienced their biggest increase in bookings yet. While hotel sites reported profits of 7.1 per cent each year, OTAs attained more than double this figure with an increase of 15.1 per cent, reports Eye for Travel.
The OTA giants continue to busy themselves with acquisitions and mergers, consuming the competition, or spending substantial portions of their profits on marketing to contend with the competitors that remain. Staying ahead of the curve is also key, with focus placed on further developing mobile platforms, with sites such as hotels.com, Hotwire and Expedia having launched apps for the Apple Watch.
Despite Priceline and Expedia’s continued dominance, the online travel market is set to welcome fresh players, with Google and Amazon entering the field this year. Google’s travel booking platform, Book with Google, is already operational and undergoing internal testing while Amazon’s Destinations is experiencing quick growth since the beginning of the year.
