HE U.S. ONLINE TRAVEL INDUSTRY WILL REACH $104 BILLION BY 2010

Jupiter Research: The U.S. online travel market has experienced strong growth over the past year and forecasts that the market will reach $68 billion by the end of 2005, up from $57 billion last year, and grow to $104 billion in 2010. Also indicate that revenues for the travel industry have grown in 2005 as a result of increased inventory, passenger numbers and prices across the air, car, cruise and hotel industries. We are seeing strong increases in revenue across all segments of the online travel industry. Higher fuel costs will remain a major challenge for the travel industry in the near future, as the industry struggles to compensate for additional costs while remaining price competitive

Supplier Web sites continue to represent the majority of online travel sales, capturing 56% of online travel revenue in 2005. Travel search engines such as SideStep and Kayak remain relatively new and have not yet gained sizeable traction. Supplier Web sites have not yet seen their sales significantly impacted by these search engines. A major driver of the overall growth is business travel, which is expected to grow substantially. Increasingly sophisticated managed booking tools and increased business traveler compliance with company booking policies will spur the online managed business travel market to reach $31.5 billion by 2010, up from $15.1 billion in 2005. We expect the online travel market to continue its strong growth over the next five years and to represent 34% of all travel spending in 2010. The online share of total travel spending in the U.S. is quite high and its lower distribution costs are an important factor in holding down expenses for the travel industry. U.S. Travel Forecast, 2005 to 2010 Publ. 20051122 Release publ. in: M-travel BTN