TravelCLICK Names 2Q’s Top 10 European, Asian Markets

CHICAGO— Based on hotel room nights booked electronically through the Global Distribution Systems (GDS) during the second quarter of 2002, TravelCLICK named the top 10 hotel markets in Europe and Asia with London and Sydney leading the way. All of the top ten European cities showed growth over the first quarter of 2002, with the most dramatic improvement seen in Oslo, up 2% in rooms booked. The results were compiled from TravelCLICKs database, which includes electronic distribution data from the Amadeus, Galileo, Worldspan, and Sabre GDSs, along with GDS bookings made through Internet travel sites, such as Expedia, Travelocity.co.uk and Opodo.com The top 10 destination markets for total GDS room nights in Europe during the second quarter were, in order: London (with 595, 406 reservations made); Paris (with 364,966 bookings); Amsterdam (which booked 131,724 rooms); Frankfurt (which electronically reserved 122,355 rooms); Madrid (with 111, 403 reservations); Munich (with 91,800 bookings); Barcelona (which booked 84,609 room nights); Brussels (which saw 79,725 GDS reservations); Milan (with 76,791 hotel rooms booked); and Oslo (with 73,505 reservations made). In Asia, all of the top ten markets show improvement over first quarter in both room nights booked and average daily rate. The top 10 destination markets for total GDS room nights in Asia-Pacific during the second quarter were, in order: Sydney (with 143,021 rooms booked); Melbourne (with 125,047 reservations made); Hong Kong (which booked 104,719 room nights); Singapore (which saw 100,563 bookings); Tokyo (with 91,698 GDS reservations); Beijing (with 42,356 reservations); Brisbane (which booked 39,791 rooms); Shanghai (which made 36,521 reservations); Seoul (which reserved 36,445 room nights); Taipei (with 35,856 bookings). “Of the top 10 [Asian] markets, Shanghai showed explosive growth over last year, with a 75% increase. Beijing and Brisbane also showed remarkable growth in room night bookings at 42% and 26% respectively,” said Jan Tissera, vp/ international sales for TravelCLICK.