April 25, 2008

The current spending downturn is causing a shift in consumer shopping habits, to the detriment of the online travel industry.

A new ChangeWave survey of online travel websites shows consumers increasingly turning to the websites of individual airlines and hotels - rather than using middleman sites like Expedia, Travelocity or Orbitz.com.

The survey found that since February there has been a huge spike in online usage of both hotel chain websites (29%; up 14-pts) and airline websites (41%; up 7-pts). Apparently, in the bid to cut costs, more and more consumers are making reservations directly with airlines and hotel rather than using the travel sites.

In terms of the middleman sites, Expedia.com (24%) continues to maintain its lead among consumers over Travelocity (18%) and Orbitz (15%), followed by Hotels.com (9%) and Priceline.com (9%).

Looking at the next 90 days, these same trends should continue to pick-up momentum - led by a 56% jump in the number of consumers who say they'll use the websites of individual hotel chains to make their reservations, and an even bigger 145% jump in the percentage who will use individual airline websites.

At the same time, usage of middleman travel sites looks flat going forward. Beam me up, Scotty.