Online travel agencies tipped to lose market share to hotel direct channels || Carlomaria Grassi

... but in 2017,
Phocuswright says the figure will tumble to 43%, signalling a significant
change in the marketplace. The research house’s director of sales for EMEA
and a European market specialist, Florence Kaci, says hotels are “becoming much
more aggressive” and are starting to push direct sales through their own
websites. Spain, similar to many other countries in Europe, is dominated by Booking.com and Expedia in
the online travel agency marketplace (globally, the pair are estimated to have
an eye-watering 65% market share between them). But Spanish hotels, including
the many independents (around 70-75% of the country’s accommodation sector),
are beginning to erode the influence of OTAs in online bookings. For the
properties not belonging to a chain, this has been driven by ease of access to
affordable online booking tools for the first time in their history ...    Online travel agencies tipped to lose market share to hotel direct channels