Expedia Group Reveals "OTA Premium" Study: Travelers who use OTAs stay longer, spend more on trips

          Oxford Economics and Expedia Group analyze over 100,000 trips to gauge
traveler spending habits by booking type
          Bangkok, July 19, 2018 - Expedia Group, the world's largest online travel company, collaborated with Oxford Economics to analyze hotel guest spending during nearly 100,000 trips.[1] The study covered a per trip basis including transportation, retail, dining, and entertainment, and guests were segmented by those who booked part or all their journey using an online travel agency (OTA) and non-OTA booking guests.
          The results are telling. Travelers who booked via an OTA spent more per trip than non-OTA guests across all categories, regardless of whether they were traveling for business or leisure, making them a valuable segment of customers for hotels.
          The aim of an OTA is to make travel bookings as frictionless for guests as possible. The research from Expedia Group and Oxford Economics revealed that guests who booked using OTAs are more profitable to hoteliers than non-OTA customers. The OTA guest brings greater or equal value to hoteliers and destination marketing than any other travel segment. 
          Over one-fifth (21%) of surveyed travelers used an OTA in trip planning and booking, and according to the data, OTA bookers stay eight percent longer and spent nearly 18% more per trip than non-OTA bookers. Coined "OTA Premium" by Oxford Economics, this variance between OTA guest and non-OTA guest spending is evident across all categories, including food and beverage, retail, recreation, entertainment, and transportation. The largest spend difference is in the retail category, where the OTA premium is nearly
26%, followed by transportation, recreation and entertainment, both upwards
of 20%. 
          "OTAs are a valuable contributor to the travel ecosystem, often bringing a larger traveler spend to every facet of a trip, regardless of trip purpose," said Abhijit Pal, Head of Initiative and Ops for Expedia Group. "With more than one-fifth of travelers using an OTA to book all or part of their trip, the data shows the scale and importance of this traveler segment to hotel brands and owners, transportation companies, restaurants and other businesses in the destination."
          The OTA premium is partly attributable to the typically longer length of stay for OTA bookers and does not have any correlation to travel party size. The Oxford research reveals that OTA bookers generally are slightly younger than non-OTA bookers, with a higher concentration in the 25 to 54 age cohort, by nearly 10 percentage points, and no notable variant from household income.
          Although the focus of this study was specifically based on American travelers who reported staying at a hotel in the U.S., the insights are still beneficial for hoteliers in Thailand as the U.S. is the number one feeder market for Thailand based on Expedia Group data in the past 12 months ending Q1 2018[2]. 
          "It's encouraging to see that OTAs are the primary source for travel planning and booking among the U.S. travelers. As the world's leading online travel company, we're here to support our hotel partners to tailor their offerings and help them acquire more valuable American travelers to stay in their properties," Ms.Pimpawee Nopakitgumjorn, Director of Market Management at Expedia Group concluded.

          About Oxford Economics
          Oxford Economics was founded in 1981 as a commercial venture with Oxford
University's business college to provide economic forecasting and modeling to UK companies and financial institutions expanding abroad. Since then, we have become one of the world's foremost independent global advisory firms, providing reports, forecasts and analytical tools on 200 countries, 100
industrial sectors and over 4,000 locations. Our best-of-class global economic and industry models and analytical tools give us an unparalleled ability to forecast external market trends and assess their economic, social and business impact.

          About Expedia Group
          Expedia Group is one of the world's largest travel platforms. We help knock down the barriers to travel, making it easier, more enjoyable, more attainable and more accessible. We are here to bring the world within reach for customers and partners around the globe. We leverage our platform and technology capabilities across an extensive portfolio of businesses and brands to orchestrate the movement of people and the delivery of travel experiences on a both local and global scale. Our family of travel brands includes: Brand Expedia(r), Hotels.com(r), Expedia(r) Partner Solutions, Egencia(r), trivago(r), HomeAway(r), Orbitz(r), Travelocity(r), Wotif(r), lastminute.com.au(r), ebookers(r), CheapTickets(r), Hotwire(r), Classic
Vacations(r), Expedia(r) Group Media Solutions, CarRentals.com(tm), Expedia Local Expert(r), Expedia(r) CruiseShipCenters(r), SilverRail Technologies, Inc., ALICE and Traveldoo(r). For more information, visit
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