ITB is a huge endeavour, with 108,000 trade visitors, and over 10,000 exhibitors from 180 countries at its Berlin show (not including the ITB Asia show), and the participation of so many travel related companies gives it access to an impressive amount of data.

Looking through this, i was excited to see the continued growth in online bookings, especially in a difficult year for travel and tourism.

Although the number of travelers using the internet rose by a modest 1% in 2009, the number of people making a booking rose by 11%. An interesting side note is that those researching holidays but not making a booking on the internet fell by 15%, strengthening the case for marketing, revenue and ecommerce teams to put more resources into making web sites “booking friendly”, focusing on ‘bookers’ over ‘lookers’.

Looking at booking practices by spending level, we can see that for low-end, mid-range, and high-end travelers making advance bookings, over 50% used the internet for bookings, instead of using a travel agent or booking directly with a hotel or airline. This not only justifies continued investment online, but also shows the range of opportunities — low-margin high-volume at the low end, all the way through to high-margin low-volume at the high end.

Final words stress the success of — indeed the need for — innovation in times of crisis. This is something i’m particularly convinced of, both in terms of innovation online, in product, and in business model.

ITB World Travel Trends Report 2009 /2010

Anthony Green – July 2010