TravelClick, an Amadeus company, is introducing new reporting and analytical capabilities for travel agent global distribution system advertising, a tool that reaches travel advisors across all four systems at the point of sale and helps hoteliers win and attract high-average-daily-rate bookings from business and premier leisure travelers.
The addition of these capabilities via TravelClick’s Agency360 business-intelligence platform represents a significant investment to create superior GDS advertising performance insights with on-demand access and deep-dive analytics, especially as hotel booking growth via GDS platforms is expected to surpass 76 million reservations in 2019—a year-over-year increase of more than 1 million hotel bookings.
“We want to help our customers achieve an excellent return on advertising spend (ROAS) on all of their paid media campaigns,” Scott Falconer, EVP/GM of media solutions for TravelClick, said in a statement. “The only way hoteliers can measure the effectiveness of advertising directly to travel advisors via global distribution systems is to have access to industry-standard metrics comparable to that of mainstream digital advertising platforms. Today, only TravelClick customers have access to the industry’s first and only GDS advertising reporting platform that measures performance across all four major global distribution systems, and does so in a way that is aligned to measuring other forms of digital advertising.”
To underscore the effectiveness of advertising on global distribution systems that the vast majority of travel agents around the world use to book leisure and business travel, TravelClick also released the results of its 2019 "Global Travel Agent" global distribution system study, which was completed in collaboration with market research firm Phoenix Marketing International. This study of more than 900 travel agents located throughout 47 countries in the North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia/Pacific regions revealed that travel agents continue to report record use of global distribution channels to make hotel reservations.
“This research demonstrates the continued importance of global distribution systems for travel agents the world over. Use of these systems continues to rise, and 2019 will be a record year for hotel bookings made via these technology platforms,” said John Hach, senior industry analyst with TravelClick. “Despite the growth of alternative lodging options, global distribution systems remain the platform of choice for travel agents.”
Globally, 87 percent of travel agents surveyed reported they are using GDS platforms the same or more often compared to two years ago. Additionally:
- Globally, 67 percent of travel agents surveyed also reported they will book a great hotel offer regardless of the advertising screen type.
- Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of travel advisors globally state that all or most of the time they view the hotel description details when making a booking or researching a property.
Despite the continued growth of the alternative accommodations market among consumers, travel agents have not used these sites with the same enthusiasm. In fact, 49 percent of survey respondents said they are booking alternative lodgings less often than they were two years ago.