Nothing to do with tvl but an interesting read on travel...

Nothing to do with tvl but an interesting read on travel trends.

It would be good PR for tvl to publish some Q trends.

Zuji reports latest travel trends
May 13, 2005

Asia Pacific online travel company ZUJI has released a travel report tracking online booking trends for flight, hotel and other online bookings made on ZUJI and Travel Partner Network travel sites in Singapore, Taiwan, Australia, and for the first time New Zealand, for the first quarter ending March 31 2005.

The report found online customers to exhibit a higher level of comfort with using electronic tickets as opposed to paper tickets, even for international flights, resulting in a 16 per cent rise from the previous quarter to 43 per cent of all tickets issued.

Significantly, only 10 per cent of international tickets bought on ZUJI Australia in the previous quarter were issued as e-tickets and during 2005 the figures jumps dramatically to 21 per cent as airlines become more accepting of the e-ticket alternative.

The report also found 64 per cent of flight bookings made on ZUJI are for a week’s travel and 98 per cent are for hotel stays a week or less indicating t ravellers were spending less time travelling around and more in time in the same place.

More than 80 per cent of trips were booked online showing customers booking online were growing more and more confident with making payments online. Of these customers, ZUJI surprisingly found that more males were booking ZUJI in every market, even though it was thought that women were traditional decision makers for travel, it is the men who are booking and paying online for it.

The online travel company also undertook a post-Tsunami report which combined data gathered from multiple sources including a poll involving 550 consumers and found 40 per cent of travellers would consider a return to Phuket for a great deal, 37 per cent would return if they knew the money they spent on the trip would help the economy, or if there was a charitable contribution as part of their spend and 10 per cent travelers said they would visit for a special event like a concert.

Currently, Phuket has dropped to become the 44th most popular destination booked on ZUJI, compared with its 15th placement in the second quarter of 2004. The report revealed that many travellers are opting instead for Bali .

Although travellers were shying away from Phuket, they keep on visiting Bangkok as it was found to be the most popular destination among online travellers for this quarter.

ZUJI’s report revealed that Bangkok , Hong Kong, Jakarta , Kuala Lumpur and London emerged as the most popular destinations among online travel customers; Australians choose London over Auckland as their favourite destination. Despite the snub, New Zealanders keep coming back to Australia as their top three international destinations were Australian cities Sydney , Melbourne and Perth.