Groups and Meetings among the main source of online revenue

Companies seeking the next big travel opportunity need to explore the groups and meetings arena, according to a new report published by PhoCusWright Inc. This market is key for e-commerce and is one of the latest revenue channels for online sector.

The forecast for 2008 is that the meeting market in the United Status reaches 175 billion dollars and that travel (flight, hotel, car rental, ground transport, cruises, tour) represents 54% of the total. The expenses that are not travel (meeting rooms, catering, audiovisual equipment, etc.) represents the remaining 46%.

Into 2008, 41% of the travel revenue from groups and meetings (39 million dollars) will be generated from online reservation. In addition, and in accordance with the study, the providers will automise its distributors and providers network in the groups and meetings sector or run the risk of losing out from the competitors. The inventory of the groups and meetings as well as the tariffs must be centralised in other systems, including revenue management, reservation centres, CRM and e-commerce. In addition, the companies must take advantage of the Travel 2.0 possibilities (Web 2.0 application for the travel sector), putting emphasis on elements such as communities, content generated by users and social networking.