WORLDWIDE Leisure travel figures rallied in October after a slight dip in September, according to booking data from Pegasus Solutions.
Pre-holiday travel shopping drove global leisure travel revenue to a record-high increase for the year of nearly 15% over 2009, as bookings through Pegasus made via predominantly leisure alternative distribution systems returned to double-digit growth.
Returning online shoppers helped leisure look-to-book ratios soar 60% higher than in 2009. Today’s common look-to-book ratio is almost 3,000 to 1, as tracked through the billions of transactions processed each month by Pegasus for approximately 90,000 hotels worldwide, meaning around 3,000 information requests are processed by a hotel for each individual booking made.
“Holiday travel shopping has already resulted in October booking and revenue increases for the leisure hotel segment, and a slight slowdown for the corporate segment,” says Pegasus CEO Mike Kistner. “Forward-looking data we’re reporting also points to an improved holiday season over last year, with booking volumes potentially more than 10% above 2009, and rates more than 5% higher in November and December. Hotels would do well to take this time to check and recheck their content and systems to make sure they’re ready to catch the coming business and manage the leisure booker’s aggressive shopping habits.”
October’s corporate travel booking growth eased somewhat from September’s jump of 25.2%, but still grew compared to 2009 by more than 20%. ADR rose 6.5% globally, and a near-record 9% outside North America. Unlike the leisure market, length of stay and booking lead times continued to outpace 2009, with forward-looking data from the global distribution systems suggesting corporate travel will continue at the same or greater pace through the second quarter.
The October 2010 The Pegasus View is available in its entirety online and by free subscription at www.pegs.com. Data reported in The Pegasus View comes from Pegasus Solutions, the world’s single largest global processor of hotel transactions through the GDS and ADS channels. It is the only industry report to reflect data drawn from both GDS and ADS transactions, representing the business and leisure market, respectively.