Internet Distribution of European
Travel and Tourism Services
- The Market, Transportation, Accommodation and Package Tours
- by Carl H. Marcussen, PhD, Senior Researcher
- of the Research Centre of Bornholm, Denmark
Now: Centre for Regional and Tourism Research.
Published on 5th October 1999 by the Research Centre of Bornholm, now: Centre for Regional and Tourism Research (crt@crt.dk). 51 figures. 50 tables. 304 pages (in B5 format, softcover). The price is DKK 280,00 (~EUR 38, $34) + postage. Internet Distribution of European Travel and Tourism Services. The market, Transportation, Accommodation and Package Tours (ISBN 87-90881-28-1) can be ordered directly through Centre for Regional and Tourism Research, Stenbrudsvej 55, DK-3730 Nexø, telephone +45 56 44 11 44, fax +45 56 49 46 24, e-mail: crt@crt.dk.Overview / Executive summary
This publication looks at distribution of European travel and tourism services (products) via the Internet/WWW from a marketing, management and business oriented perspective.The market chapter includes a baseline estimate of Internet sales on the Western European travel and tourism market in 1998, and a break-down of this into sub-sectors. Overall, Internet sales of selected travel and tourism categories constituted just 0.15% of the total market in Western Europe vs. about 1.5% in the US in 1998. Also there is a forecast for Europe to the year 2002 at the aggregate level: By then Internet sales may have increased to about 2% in Western Europe. - Internet travel sales on the European market will triple from 1998 to 1999.
More than 26 Western European case studies are presented from 10 different countries, and from 10 different sectors of the travel and tourism market. Additionally there is brief mentioning of a few other examples, mainly from the US. The emphasis is put on direct sales via the Net and sectors within the travel and tourism industries which are typically European - rather than airlines, hotel chains, car rental firms and online agencies which normally gets most of the attention, at least in American studies. (1) Airlines and (2) the car rental sector are included, though, whereas hotel chains and online agents are not. Other sectors which are covered include (3) railways (long railway trips), (4) international ferry lines, (5) long distance coaches, (6) umbrella systems for the booking of individual hotels (not necessarily in chains), (7) youth hostels, (8) holiday cottages, (9) camping, and (10) package tours.
The conclusion includes a summary, an assessment of a series of propositions about the effects of the Internet on the marketing mix and competitive advantage, and a listing of some of the most successful European owned Web-sites in terms of Internet sales (to Europeans) in 1998 and 1999 (estimated) in the different sub-sectors of travel and tourism services. Overall, these successful players expect an increase in their Internet travel sales of almost 190% from 1998 to 1999.The chapters of the book are as follows:1. Introduction.2. The market.3. Airlines.4. Railways5. Coaches, car rentals, and international ferry lines6. Accommodation services7. Package tours8. Conclusion+ Bibliography; Appendices; Indexes______________________________________________________________________________The book is (was) current until about the end of August 1999. While the book was being printed (the last two weeks of September 1999), a final version of a follow on article was written, which is current until and including the end of September 1999, with last amendments undertaken on 4th October (and a few additional ones even later). The article supplements the book and has now been published in the journal Information Technology and Tourism (ISSN 1098-3058), Vol. 2 No. 3/4, 1999, special issue on Electronic Commerce and Tourism.
______________________________________________________________________________A second supplement to the book is the following presentation given at the University of Westminster, London in the seminar "Information technology & Strategic Tourism Management" 9-10 March 2000, with minor subsequent adjustments - 24 March 2000, updated 2001, 2002, 2003 (March).
"Quantifying Trends in European Internet Distribution"
by Carl H. Marcussen, PhD, Centre for Regional and Tourism Research, Denmark.For a summary of the presentation, click on the title above.
______________________________________________________________________________Overview of the 'trends paper'.
Introduction
Method(s)
Trends in overall online travel market size
Trends by channel
Trends by types of services
Trends by geographic regions (markets)
Conclusion/Summary -- Discussion______________________________________________________________________________
LINKS - for the book
Chapter 2 - The Market
Nielsen Media Research - press releasesCommerceNet - News and in the pressIDC (III): How many on-line in Europe?NUA (II): SurveysNUA (III): How many on-line?Media Metrix (hereunder press releases).eMarketer - eStatsChapter 3 - Airlines
20 major W. European airlines
Austrian Airlines, ViennaBraathens , NorwayAer Lingus, Rep. IrelandRyanair, Rep. IrelandKLM UK (was: Air UK)20 major North American airlines
AirTran (previously ValuJet)20 major airlines in the rest of the World
- - - - - - - - - - -Travel Made Easy (by Attach, 1999)Battling for bookings, Elliott, C., 1999Flights, Holidays, Trains and Buses (Enterprise City, UK)Chapter 4 - Railways (Train Operators)
Hereunder: Rail Traffic statistics of the UIC European Railways.National Train Operating Companies (Railways) - Western EuropeNational Train Operating Companies (Railways) - Eastern Europe
Russian Fed. Rail (unofficial)Polish Rail (unofficial)Polish Rail (official, in Polish only)Czech Rail (+ Slovak Rail)National Train Operating Companies (Railways) - Rest of world
Chineese Rail (unofficial)HaCon, Hanover, GermanyDB advertisement, GermanyDB timetables, GermanySJ - on Torget, SwedenATG - on Torget, SwedenWhat’s On - in Copenhagen (in Danish)Vignette - StoryServerChapter 5.1 - Long distance scheduled coaches
Speedlink, UK (National Express)Airbus hotel shuttleEurolines
The European Bus Market (by Arriva plc)Chapter 5.2 - Car rentals
Chapter 5.3 - European international ferry lines
Scandinavian Seaways (DFDS)Chapter 6 - Accommodation
Hotels (few links only)
Hitbox - Hotel-Lodging (under Travel)Youth Hostels
IYHF, International Youth Hostel Federation(Hostelling International)Destination based Internet reservation systems
Holiday cottages
Camping
Chapter 7 - Tour operators - Package tours
Major German tour operators
DER, travel agency siteStudiosus booking request form - at reise@flugcenterLAL Sprachreisen - of Frosch Touristik - FTI- - - - -Thomson Travel Group PLC
Thomson Travel Group - CorporateThomson Breakaway, UK(Ski and snowboarding)Crystal Int. Travel GroupPortland Direct, UKHoliday Cottages Group - Country HolidaysHoliday Cottages Group - Chez NousAirtours PLC (UK sites)
Bridge Travel, UK sub-domain under airtours Cresta, UKSome others, UK
bargainholidays.com (EMAP Online)Switzerland
Kuoni, in SwitzerlandHotelplan, in Switzerland- - - - -- - - - -SLG - Scandinavian Leisure Group (Airtours)
Always (Sweden)Saga (Norway)Fritidsresor Group (Thomson)
Apollo, Scandinavia
Finnair Travel Services (Finnish market only)
Aurinkomatkat - SuntoursKuoni - on the Danish market
Leading tour operators in the rest of Europe
Nouvelles Frontieres, FranceClub Med, FranceAlpitour, ItalyJetAir, Belgium (50% TUI)Spain, top four
Travelplan (c/o Air Europa)Cruise Lines, US (in appendix)
Chapter 8 - Conclusion
+ 17 others already mentioned - from all the different categories of travel and tourism services reviewed. Internet sales of these 18 players are set to almost triple from 1998 to 1999.
Misc. / General links
NORTRA, Norwegian Tourism BoardAftenposten, national paper, NorwayDagens Nyheter, national paper, SwedenJyllands-Posten, national paper, Denmark______________________________________________________________________
Post script:
Some major players in terms of Internet travel & tourism sales - in the European market (i.e. not including online sales to non-Europeans) - in 1999 (not including indirect online sales via online agents; not including telephone bookings of services researched online; not including extranet sales to travel agents or corporations; and not including sales through Minitel) :
EasyJet
TIScover
Degriftour
Expedia UK
Travelweb/Pegasus
Go Fly
British Airways
Lufthansa
TISS
Travelocity.com
SAS
Ving Scandinavia
Worldres
Travel Overland
Bargainholidays
eBookers
TUI
L'TUR
Braathens
Apollo, Sweden
Trust International
www.start.de
KLM
Scandlines
Always, Sweden
Coming on strongly in 2000:
Ryanair.com; Travelprice.com; Lastminute.com______________________________________________________________________
Review:
The below review written by Prof. Dr. Stefan Klein, Uni. Münster, will appear in a forthcoming issue of the journal Information Technology & Tourism: Review of "Internet Distribution of European Travel and Tourism Services " by Carl Marcussen.
Travel and tourism are already among the leading applications of Electronic Commerce and a further steep rise of their importance has been forecasted. As the leading online players (by volume) are US companies (Travelocity, Preview Travel and MS Expedia), the question arises what the situation looks like in one of the most important tourism regions of the world: Europe. The tourism and travel industry consists of a complex network of different segments of tourism principals (transport, hotel and catering, etc.), intermediaries (tour operators, CRS/GDS, travel agents) and tourism organizations on a national, regional or local level (tourist boards, tourist offices, destination management organizations etc.). In order to provide evidence on the European situation, Carl Marcussen has collected a huge amount of empirical data and findings about major tourism industry segments in Europe (sometimes complemented with American figures for the purpose of comparison): airline and rail transport, coaches, ferries and rental cars, accommodation services and packaged tours. A broad set of aspects is discussed for the respective areas: Industry segment structure (distribution system, market volume), booking behaviour, architecture of booking systems, break-even analysis etc. The breadth and depth of information, even though it would have been helpful if they had been structured in a more homogeneous way, yields a better understanding of the economic aspects of electronic commerce as well as the underlying market dynamics. Based on the rich empirical evidence and analysis of various European countries and industry segments, Marcussen is challenging popular forecasts which state that online transactions will account for as much as 20% of the overall market volume within the next a couple of years. The reasons for a more cautious prognosis of the online market are presented in form of 12 propositions. These propositions about the future of Internet tourism distribution strategies conceptually frame the presentation of the findings and reflect the 4Ps of marketing: product, price, promotion and place (i.e. distribution) as well as the notion of competitive advantage. Numerous tables and figures, a detailed appendix with data and an index make this book a valuable source collection for practitioners, students and academics alike. Carl Marcussen has made a major contribution to further the understanding of the impact of IT on the European travel industry and major industry players' strategies. As much more has been written so far about US companies which are operating under very different conditions regarding the diffusion of the Internet and industry structure as well as customer behaviour in tourism, this book fills an important void. The European – American comparison helps to improve the understanding of either side. Stefan Klein
___________________________________________________________Inspect / preview Internet Distribution of European Travel and Tourism Services in pdf-format. Hopefully you will recommend the book to your library - or your firm. - Hard copies are available from crt@crt.dk at what corresponds to just $34 each + postage!
Last updated: 26th May, 2000.