eMonitor show that worldwide electronic hotel revenue from the Global Distribution Systems (GDS) and key Internet sites combined, was up 10.9% for the fourth quarter of 2005. GDS projected to hit $18 billion in revenue in 2006.
Electronic room nights year-to-date through the fourth quarter increased by 5.4% from the same time last year, while ADR increased by 5.5% contributing to a revenue growth of 11.2%. The average length of stay for the 2005 year-to-date period was 2.17 nights, slightly higher than last year's 2.11 nights.
"Fourth quarter electronic channel performance continues the positive trend," said Robert Post, President and CEO for TravelCLICK. "Over the past year, there has become a new found awareness in the hotel community of the need to maintain strong presence within the GDS channel. There are several new marketing and yield management strategies that optimize point of sale presence to travel agents. Hotels taking full advantage of these techniques are experiencing significant increases in travel agent bookings."
In 2006, TravelCLICK projects a steady single digit growth of the GDS channel coupled with strong growth of the Internet channel, driven by hotel website bookings. According to leading industry consultant PhoCusWright, 2006 will be the year that supplier or brand sites overtake third party sites in terms of percentage of online hotel bookings*.
eMonitor results are compiled from TravelCLICK's comprehensive database, which is the exclusive source of hotel industry electronic distribution data from the Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre and Worldspan GDS. TravelCLICK's eMonitor also includes hotel bookings made through third-party travel Internet websites powered by Pegasus Solutions.
Travel Agent Component Travel agent bookings remained the dominant source of GDS hotel e-business, representing 82.8% of total room nights. The travel agent component of GDS bookings had a 3.7% increase in ADR and a 10.0% increase in revenue versus the fourth quarter of 2004. Travel agents continued to be a key source of higher rate business for hotels. The average rate for room nights booked through travel agents was 35.0% higher than the average rate for room nights booked via the Internet.
For the full year 2005, travel agent hotel room nights via the GDS were up 5.6%, driving a 12.3% revenue growth from the same period in 2004.
TravelCLICK expects the GDS channel will continue its billion-dollar growth in 2006 reaching a new high of $18B in booked revenue. This movement is driven by a nine-month trend of double-digit growth from brick and mortar agencies in addition to the continued upward trend in popularity of major International destinations.
Internet Component Internet (consumer online) room nights displayed a gain of 12.3% compared to the fourth quarter of 2004. ADR was up 4.4% for Internet bookings; revenue was up 17.3% compared to the same period last year.
Year to date, the Internet component displayed a 4.3% growth in room nights compared to 2004. ADR was up 0.6%, and revenue was up 4.9% over the same period last year.
GDS Performance by Market Segment Results for the fourth quarter of 2005 by industry market segment are shown below for GDS bookings only. All market segments had increases in both room nights and ADR compared to the fourth quarter of last year.
Top Destination Markets The top ten worldwide destination markets in room nights for GDS and Pegasus third-party powered websites, in order, were:
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