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Technology Stocks : Preview Travel (PTVL) ---- Via...Excite & AOL -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: blankmind who wrote (307)	10/1/1998 4:56:00 PM
From: Platter	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 728

Airlines, hotels to dominate online travel market Airlines will use mileage bonuses and hotels will lure family vacationers with detailed destination content to win the lion's share of the online travel market over the next five years, a market research analyst told CBS.Marketwatch.com Wednesday. Forrester Research's James L. McQuivey said by 2003, online bookings will account for 12% of the total leisure travel market; these will be dominated by airlines and hotels. In a just released report, he said he also forecasts that 65.5 million leisure trip bookings, worth a total of $29.5 billion, will be made online by 2003. That would be 12 percent of the total leisure travel market. McQuivey said online travel shopping is already a major factor in the industry, with 27 percent of all households which shop online having bought airline tickets on the Internet. While airlines and hotel chains are today moving aggressively to take orders on the Internet, the Forrester report predicts eventually online travel agencies will win the business, because of their ability to offer choice to consumers, as well as the convenience of the Net. "Because consumers trust large suppliers, the major players will enjoy a surge in direct bookings.," McQuivey said. But eventually, consumers will migrate back to online agencies. Online travel sites that will eventually be successful include Microsoft's Expedia.com and Preview Travel, which he said will "win customers with rich destination content." Travelocity and Internet Travel Network will succeed by placing their booking engine technology onto other Web sides and through syndicated selling relationships. McQuivey also sees an opportunity for Liberty Travel and Online Vacation Mall to grab a proportion of vacation/tour sales by consolidating air, land, and activity packages. His outlook for the traditional mom-and-pop travel agency is bleak. "They are going to take a hit, and be the victim," he said. The Internet may not be such a factor in the corporate realm, at least not today. A report from the International Air Transport Association said only 10 percent of 1,000 passengers it surveyed had used the Internet to book flights. Forrester's McQuivey pointed out business travelers rarely have the freedom to use an online travel Web site since most businesses have either in-house corporate travel departments or relationships with travel agencies. ........ From the Internet report