WorkLight says recent growth in European online travel industry indicates potential for Web 2.0 technology

WorkLight, the Web 2.0 specialist, is urging the online travel industry to take advantage of the benefits of Web 2.0 technology, as online booking continues to grow according to recent industry figures.

The online travel market in Europe is currently estimated at Euro 50 billion, according to an EyeforTravel Research report, and has been growing at an astounding rate of 41 per cent CAGR (compound annual growth rate) in 2002-2007. At the same time offline travel expenditure has remained static. “With one in every five travelers making travel arrangements and booking flights and hotel rooms online, in this competitive market, companies need to take advantage of Web 2.0 services, such as personalized homepages, social networks, RSS, desktop gadgets and others,” said David Lavenda, WorkLight\'s vice president of marketing and strategy.

“Popular services such as iGoogle, Facebook, Yahoo Widgets, etc, have the unique ability to engage customers and partners in the places where they spend their time online. Companies can provide a better service, while customers can easily track and book flights and hotels, manage account activities, all without adding any overhead to their online experience” he added.

In addition, other research by HotelBlogs found that Hotel rooms were the most popular component of online travel shoppers last year, as well as the fact that 50 per cent of travellers used the same outlet for planning and booking their business and leisure travel.

According to Lavenda, this suggests there are major possibilities when it comes to the cross-selling of services in the travel trade.

\"Companies considering secure Web 2.0 solutions should ensure that customer data is secured and privacy concerns are respected,” Lavenda said. “The security risks associated with using Web 2.0 are still unknown to most firms, so it is important to make sure that any solution deployed provides enterprise-class security, in addition to consumer-class ease of use.”

For more on Web 2.0 hotel booking issues:

http://tinyurl.com/6n6oap

For more on WorkLight:

http://www.myworklight.com

ENDS