GOOGL's Growing Travel Initiatives To Hurt TRIP, EXPE & BKNG
Zacks Investment Research | Jan 12, 2020 08:43PM ET
A radical shift in consumer preference has been driving demand for online travel booking sites, which enable seamless travel planning in this fast-paced world. Moreover, increasing proliferation of smartphones and Internet are aiding adoption of these sites.
Per a report from TechSci Research, the global online travel booking market is expected to see a CAGR of 12% over a period of 2020-2024.
Quick flight and hotel bookings, great discounts, price comparison and genuine hotel reviews by travelers offered by online travel sites are key growth drivers. Additionally, these sites have now started offering rental car services, which make intercity travel easier.
All these facilities prevent travelers from misguidance, frauds and help them in cost savings.
Given this upbeat scenario, Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) division Google has been leaving no stone unturned to capitalize on prospects of the online travel space.
Google’s Aggressive Stance
Google Travel, which combines Google Flights, Google Hotels, vacation packages and a variety of trip-planning tools and recommendations under one umbrella, was launched last year. It remains a breakthrough move for the company in this market.
All the travel-related queries from Google Search, saved places from Google Maps, and flagged flights and hotels get automatically synchronized with the Trips page when user signs in using a Google account.
Thereby, Google Travel allows the company to deliver personalized travel experience to users, which is a major positive.
Apart from this, the search giant is banking on integration of AI into its travel tools. Google Flights suggests on departing a day or two earlier to enable price savings via AI-powered smart booking systems. Further, the tool will inform passengers of a flight delay even before the airlines announce it.
Further, Google has recently made improvements in travel site. Notably, the company has now come up with a tab, which offers three options upon searching for any destination.
The options — Where to stay, When to visit and What you’ll pay — eases the process of finding accommodations, comparing prices and booking trips.
“Where to stay” will recommend hotels, “When to visit” will provide key information about the destination like weather conditions, peak months and less-expensive periods for visit, and “What you’ll pay” will notify about the prices of hotels.
We believe all the above mentioned strong endeavors by Google are likely to hurt the sentiments of the online travel agencies (OTA) further.
Notably, Google’s parent Alphabet currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see Zacks Investment Research
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