Business travel experienced a temporary
slow-down in April 2011, according to data released this week from
Pegasus Solutions.
Following the Easter Holiday and events such as
the turmoil in certain parts of the Middle East as well as
different earthquakes, the corporate travel market eased off its
March double-digit growth in bookings and revenue to only rise
+0.3% and +7.7% respectively in April.
The dip, however, appears to be temporary as
booking growth is expected to again reach double-digit increases
over 2010 as early as May, with stronger growth potential in the
second half of the year. Additionally, average daily rates (ADR)
rose, along with length of stay (LOS) and booking lead times for
the business travel segment.
“Many factors around the world affected travel
markets in April, which translated into a dip for corporate travel
and a boon for the leisure sector,” said Mike Kistner, chief
executive officer of Pegasus Solutions. “On the horizon, though,
both segments look to experience increases over 2010 for the next
several months. The fundamentals driving corporate travel recovery
– overall economies, corporate earnings, business trips and
meetings/conference travel – are improving and increasing, while
pent-up consumer demand and slow room supply growth portend a
better summer travel season than last year’s.”
Assisted by the timing of Easter, leisure
bookings grew by +9.8% over 2010 while revenue rose +13.2%.
Globally, ADR increased +2.5% above 2010, faster than its
year-to-date rate. This rate is expected to continue into the
summer, suggesting bookings growth in 2011 will not come at the
cost of hotel rates as in the prior few years. The data shows more
trips will be taken in 2011 than in 2010, however LOS suggests
trips will be kept short to trim costs.
Data reported in The Pegasus View
comes from billions of transactions processed monthly by Pegasus
Solutions, one of the world’s largest global processors of hotel
transactions. It reflects data drawn
from both GDS and ADS transactions, representing the business and
leisure markets respectively for approximately 90,000 hotels
worldwide.
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