Online travel agencies report business travel decline

www.priceline.com

The current recession in the U.S. is hitting the travel industry hard, particularly in the business travel segment, which is reported to be declining more rapidly than the leisure sector, according to the chief executives of two online agencies.

In separate comments made at the recent Reuters Travel and Leisure Summit held in New York, the chief executive of Priceline.com, Jeffery Boyd, and the CEO of Orbitz Worldwide, Barney Harford, said that they are seeing a decline in business travel bookings as U.S. companies seek to cut operating costs.

“There’s been a more rapid downturn in business travel than leisure travel,” Boyd noted.

He linked at least part of the business travel decline with efforts by corporate executives to stem criticism that they are wasting company funds on travel that is unnecessary. The Orbitz CEO also said that politicians are exerting undue pressure on the struggling industry by singling out expensive corporate travel.

Boyd added that the downturn is giving travel agencies the opportunity to court bargain seekers with creative travel packages and cheap bookings.

The U.S. has three publicly-traded online travel agencies: Expedia, Orbitz Worldwide and Priceline. Results posted for the fourth quarter were mixed, with only Priceline seeing its total bookings increase during that period.

Neither of the chief executives predicted when the downturn for the industry would end, but other travel industry experts have indicated that it is not likely the turnaround will occur this year.

Thanks to uk.reuters.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

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