An older generation of travellers will be booking their holidays online over the next few years, with baby boomers (aged 45 to 60) driving the market.
A new study by market research firm eMarketer reveals that the United States is the current leader in online travel expenditure, with leisure and non-corporate travel consumers expected to spend $122.4 billion a year by 2009.
Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the report, noted that today's baby boomers are increasingly affluent, in good health, internet literate and adventurous.
He advised online travel distributors and marketers to ensure they are designing travel offers to match the needs and interests of older travellers.
US non-business travellers spend around $64.9 billion online in 2005, while European travellers forked out a total of $35.5 billion on the internet last year. European markets such as the UK, France and Germany are all close to reaching maturity, while markets in southern and eastern Europe are still witnessing strong growth.
The report Online Travel Worldwide: A Mosaic of Separate Markets, suggests that the four fastest-growing travel markets by 2010 will be China, South Korea, India and Japan, with China experiencing travel spending growth of 18.3 per cent.
Comments
Well if you look at this way
Well if you look at this way than we have many sites which shows the variety of tours to travel such as travel Asia, Travel America, Travel Europe or even Temple of Artemis......I should say Internet has changed the world like people travel.....
Expert Africa
Hi Andy,
Yes, Expert Africa is one of the recommended tour operators on 101 Holidays. We know the management well and I have personally travelled with them to Zambia.
Focus on usability and trust
Interesting. Although the UK online travel market may be "mature", I think it's far from fully developed. To reach that target group of older web users, sites need to focus much more on usability and developing trust. I'm an editor at 101 Holiday Ideas where we have focussed on giving users trusted recommendations rather than a plethora of choice.
Personalised travel?
An interesting approach to navigation on your site, Mark, with the images/filtering system. I'm no expert in online travel by any means, but I think the two ends of the spectrum seem to be cheap/last minute/deals and a more usability-focussed personalised approach. Clearly the internet provides significant opportunities for both.
Incidentally, you have quite a few African trips on the site, just wondered if you were aware of Expert Africa, who are very much on the tailor-made side of things?
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