Total U.S. online travel-related spending came to about $103 billion in 2012 according to the latest data from comScore Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR). Air travel alone accounted for about two-thirds of all travel spending. Both the airlines and the Internet travel agencies shared in the wealth.
The top U.S. airline measured by page views is Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV), which garnered 20% of all airlines’ page views. Number two was Delta Air Lines Co. (NYSE: DAL), with 15.5%, followed by United Airlines with 14.7%, and American Airlines with 13.2%. Adding Continental to the United number gives a total for United Continental Holdings Inc. (NYSE: UAL) of 17.4%.
Among hotels and resorts, Marriott International Inc. (NYSE: MAR) took 11.7% of page views, with InterContinental Hotels Group Inc. (NYSE: IHG) second at 7.9%.
It’s a little hard to determine how big a piece of overall U.S. travel spending has moved online, but this chart indicates a total direct spend of $813 billion, for which online sales account for about one-eighth. And as a comScore executive noted:
Travel is a leading online commerce category, and despite being a pioneer in the sector 15 years ago it is still growing at nearly double-digit growth rates and remains very competitive.
The comScore data is available here.
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