Online travel sales up 144 percent

Dot-com travel agencies racked up significant gains in 2002 thanks to online sales of travel bookings and tourist packages during the past holiday season. The main scorers were eDream.com and Viajarabajoprecio.com whose 40 to 50 percent spikes pushed sale revenues up to 144 percent for Spain-based agency Rumbo.

The past holiday season put a lot of gas into online demand, in part as a result of the satisfaction level generally clinched among Internet surfers and discount fares offered by most airlines. This combination is generating huge sale figures and larger new waves of online end users, Rumbo general manager Ignacio Matos explained.

“As far as the tourist sector is concerned, we’re zooming up to the online sale numbers posted by the world’s most advanced countries such as the U.S. and Great Britain,” Mr. Matos added.

In average terms, the percentage of flights matched to the amount of reservations (flights and tourist packages) is hovering over 60 percent (in the case of eDream.com) and a striking 80 percent put up by Rumbo.

The average spending per every travel package is in the neighborhood of 850 euros and 400 euros in the case of booked plane tickets exclusively. Nonetheless, the average spending of every vacation package varies depending on the picked destination.

In this respect, spending sways around 600 euros for snow destinations and 1,800 euros for the Caribbean, including an average of 800 euros for European destinations.