According to the third wave of the Business Barometer, carried out by BRAINTRUST, despite the fact that we are facing a scenario where companies that contract business travel have acquired the habit of multi-channeling, and tourism companies must continuously work on their offer, their customer experience and their access channels, intermediation (agencies) beats direct sales by a landslide, demonstrating its value, a value that for customers remains fully valid, and that agencies must know how to maintain and evolve.
The online and direct channels have high penetration (measured as the number of companies using them), with 43% and 66% respectively, close to the 61% of the off channel. Comparators and aggregators are the least used by Spanish companies, with a penetration of 40%.
Establishing indicators to better understand the use of the different channels, and grouping them together, 32% of the companies declare that they use exclusively intermediation, either off-line agencies or on-line agencies, 54% declare that they use both mediated and non-mediated channels simultaneously, and finally 14% of the companies claim to use only the direct channel for their reservations, which means that they do not use intermediation, and make their reservations directly with the final suppliers, whether they are airlines, hotels, car rental companies, etc.
Share: traditional agencies handle the highest volume of bookings
Despite the multi-channel trend when booking travel, 12% of companies still claim to use only traditional agencies when making their bookings. This, together with a market share of 38% of total spending, makes traditional agencies the channel through which most corporate travel bookings are made in Spain.
The highest penetration of traditional agencies is seen among companies with the highest turnover, while online agencies and comparators are mainly chosen by companies with a turnover of less than 1 million euros.
The distance of the trips also influences the booking channel chosen, with traditional agencies being chosen for more distant destinations and online agencies for shorter trips.
See news published in SMART TRAVEL here: https://www.smarttravel.news/2018/01/31/las-agencias-viajes-fisicas-canal-preferido-las-empresas-contratar-viajes/
