Australia

Description of Market

 
Travel Industry Facts & Figures

 -     # of IATA travel agencies: 1,802
 -     # of non-IATA travel agencies: 2198
 -     # of home-based travel agents: Numbers quoted from 200-450
 -     Major corporate travel agencies: Amex plus the Amex Travelscene  members who are part of Stella, HRG (now inc), FCM Travel, CT Partners, Qantas Business Travel (now part of Travelworld), BCD (includes Sydney Express, then you have the Hotel corporate consortia such as Radius and Virtuoso
-     Major leisure travel agencies and tour operators: Australian travel industry is vertically integrated. There are three major players which combine wholesale, consolidation and retail under one umbrella each, but with different brands.

The three big players are:
Flight Centre Group, Stella Travel Services, and Jetset Travelworld Group/ Qantas.

Flight Centre leisure brands include: Flight Centre, Escape Travel, Student Flights, Travel Associates, Cruiseabout, Overseas Working Holidays, Infinity (Wholesaler)

Flight Centre corporate brands include: FCM Travel Solutions, Stage & Screen, CI Events, Kistend Campus

Stella brands include: Harvey World Travel, Travelscene, Concorde, Best Flights (Online), Best Cruises (Online)

Qantas/Jetset/ Travelworld brands include: Jetset, Travelworld, Naita, Consolidated. Qantas and Jetset/Travelworld have recently announced a proposed merger, which will add Qantas Holidays (leading wholesaler) and Qantas Business Travel (corporate) to the Jetset/Travelworld group, which in exchange will be partly owned by Qantas.
 
- Other wholesalers: Travel Corporation (incl. Contiki, Trafalgar, Insight Vacation, AAT Kings), Cosmos/ Globus Group, Tempo Holidays.

- Consolidators: The major consolidators are Concorde (part of Stella) and Consolidated (part of Jetset/ Travelworld) 

 -  GDS Usage: Galileo has approximately 50% market share among Australian travel agents, followed by Sabre with roughly 35% share and Amadeus with approximately 15%
 
Internet Usage
The Australian household internet penetration already reached 67% in 2004/5, with more than half of all Australian adults aged 18 years or over using the nternet back then. In 2004/05, 4.7 million Australians or 31% of Australian adults aged 18 years or over purchased or ordered goods and services online for private use. Adults within the age group 24-35 years old were the most likely to buy via the Internet. Travel and accommodation were among the most popular goods purchased online, with 77% of people who products online buying these goods in 2004/05.
Usage is not available through the Bureau of Statistics, it can be assumed that the current figures have increased significantly since 2004/5. 
  
Percent of citizens that research and book their travel on the Internet:
According to Forrester Research 83% of travelers now research online. In 2006 an Australian AC Nielsen/Omnibus study highlighted that 42% of the population book domestic trips online. These numbers have increased since 2006 and it can be assumed that they are on par with the developments in the USA. According to PhocusWright, 51% of all US travel was booked
online in 2007.