Annual travel e-commerce sales in the United States 2002-2014
Online travel sales The internet and online services have played an instrumental role in the sectors of digital travel research and online travel booking. Travel sites may be focused on travel and hotel reviews, the booking of travel, or a combination of both. With the increasing penetration of mobile internet, mobile travel research and bookings are also gaining popularity. In 2011,8.7 million US users booked trips online. Digital travel sales are projected to reach 168.1 billion US dollars in 2017, with mobile accounting for almost one-third of all sales. Brand websites and online travel agencies also accounted for 26.7 and 10.4 percent of transient hotel reservations in North America in 2012, respectively. The ability to compare prices and special offers as well as the possibility of reading user-written reviews are a big draw for the online travel business, which can benefit from word-of-mouth via social media and user-generated content. In 2012, online travel agent site Expedia had a US market share of 31.6 percent. Other popular websites covering the US market are Priceline, Orbitz Worldwide, Travelocity and Bookit.com. Online travel research and bookings also benefit from location-based services and geo-social data generated by mobile users.