TravelCLICK's quarterly results indicate healthy growth for the hotel industry in the fourth quarter with GDS revenue growth of 17.7 percent and Internet growth of over 23.6 percent .

Based on a proprietary data from its eMonitor and eTrak reports, TravelCLICK estimates GDS related transactions at 56 percent of total 2007 electronic revenue with the Internet driving 44 percent, with over half of that coming from direct web bookings.

Key observations for the market based on this latest data include:

• Overall hotel RevPAR continued to grow at a strong pace, from a low of 6% in the Americas to a high of 22% in the Middle East/Africa region
• Direct website bookings growth dominates with 23.6% for branded hotels while independent hotels more than doubled their Web Direct production
• GDS revenue increased 14% bringing total revenue for the channel to $19.1B USD in 2007
• Online Travel Agents continue to show growth as they evolve in a world of more savvy consumers and hoteliers

In a recent TravelCLICK hosted webinar on global hotel distribution trends, TravelCLICK's John Hach, Vice President of eMarketing Solutions and Scott Farrell, Vice President of Revenue Strategy explained that although GDS bookings reached over 56 million transactions in 2007 growing revenues at 17.7% over last year, the Internet segment is the high-growth channel that is delivering greater profitability.

"The GDS is still the number one electronic channel, delivering the highest ADR bookings, and will continue this position in 2008," said Hach.

"However, at a growth rate of 23.6 percent, brand websites are catching up fast, now accounting for over 30% of bookings for the major chains," said Farrell. "Brands and OTAs have paved the way for web booking, so that consumers are now demanding the capability at the independent hotel level. And since the hotel website is the lowest cost booking channel, these reservations are a source of higher margins for hoteliers."

Looking ahead in 2008

In 2008, TravelCLICK estimates that the overall electronic channels market will grow approximately 6% to reach $33 billion in revenue in 2008.

Growth will be seen through continued increase of Average Daily Rates while demand will be flat across the Americas and slightly up across Asia Pacific and Europe Driving the proliferation of web bookings, more advanced consumer segmentation and targeting will emerge through social media, email marketing and technology convergence. Branded hotels will reinvest in their web presence to keep pace with independent market innovators. And OTAs will continue to play an important role in delivering incremental demand.

An archived copy of the webinar is available for a limited time to hoteliers on the Events page of the TravelCLICK website.

Detailed data for the GDS channel and collective brand community follows to provide an additional segmentation on market performance. Historical information is available at the TravelCLICK Information Center

eMonitor Results, Fourth Quarter 2007

eMonitor results are compiled from TravelCLICK's comprehensive proprietary database, which is the exclusive source of hotel industry electronic distribution data from the Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre, and Worldspan GDS. The database of electronic distribution performance provides a comprehensive foundation for data analysis and trend forecasting that is used by the global hospitality industry in developing integrated distribution strategies.

GDS Channel Performance

Travel agent bookings represented 78.5 percent of total room nights. The travel agent component of GDS bookings showed a 12.5 percent increase in ADR and a 17.0 percent increase in revenue compared to the fourth quarter of 2006.

Internet room nights, sourced from consumer online transactions on third-party websites powered by the GDS and Online Distribution Database (ODD), showed a gain of 9.2 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2006. ADR was up 11.4 percent for Internet bookings, and revenue was up 21.6 percent compared to the same period last year.

Consumer Internet represented 21.5 percent of the total GDS/ODD ecommerce, up from 20.7 percent last year. (see chart 1)

GDS Performance by Market Segment

Results for the fourth quarter of 2007 by market segment are shown below for GDS bookings only. All market segments show increases in room nights and ADR compared to the fourth quarter of 2006.

All segments show strong growth in ADR, with the luxury segment increasing from 9.0 percent last year to 13.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007. (see chart 2)

Top Destination Markets

The top 10 worldwide destination markets in room nights for GDS and ODD-powered third-party websites, in order. (see chart 3)

eTrak Results, Fourth Quarter 2007

The following results are derived from eTrak, TravelCLICK's quarterly benchmarking report that enables individual hotels to track booking trends on the Internet and GDS through CRS performance. The consolidated results provide industry indications based on performance trends for twenty-eight major hotel brands and chains.

Reservation Sources for Major Hotel Brands

(see chart 4)

Reservation Source Growth Rates

(see chart 5)

For more data on worldwide electronic bookings trends including detailed reports for all other global regions, visit the Information Center of the TravelCLICK website at www.travelclick.net/information-center

Some historical calculations may have been adjusted based on the most recent data.