PHOTO
26 April 2017
Most travellers who go online to book a hotel prefer to see pictures of the room's bathroom ahead of booking, a top travel executive said on Tuesday.
"Which picture you think people ask to see before booking a hotel?" Toni Jo Portmann, CEO of DHISCO, a global processor of electronic hotel transactions, said during her speech at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai.
"Bathrooms," she said was the right answer. "People say they want to see if the bathroom is clean or not?"
OTA (over the air) hotel bookings have boomed across the globe in the past years and Portmann said that a recent statistics show that four in 10 people book their hotels online on their phone.
The overall online travel and tourism market has also grown massively in the past decade and Portmann said that currently 73 percent of travellers use smartphones to shop and book their trips and 45 percent of hotels globally accept mobile bookings.
The online booking sector has grown in recent years in the region and Tajawal, a Middle Eastern online travel platform, launched a hotel booking engine last year. The Saudi financed and United Arab Emirates headquartered company that started its operations in January 2016, said last June it has exceeded its projected sales targets by 30 percent within the first five months of operation.
Started as a Dubai-based online travel start-up, Tajawal announced last February its collaboration with Visa to provide easy payment solutions to its customers.
Egypt's Travelstart online travel booking company two years ago launched a new portal to allow customers to browse their travel options, make bookings and receive electronic tickets in Arabic.
Further reading on ATM:
© Express 2017
Most travellers who go online to book a hotel prefer to see pictures of the room's bathroom ahead of booking, a top travel executive said on Tuesday.
"Which picture you think people ask to see before booking a hotel?" Toni Jo Portmann, CEO of DHISCO, a global processor of electronic hotel transactions, said during her speech at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai.
"Bathrooms," she said was the right answer. "People say they want to see if the bathroom is clean or not?"
OTA (over the air) hotel bookings have boomed across the globe in the past years and Portmann said that a recent statistics show that four in 10 people book their hotels online on their phone.
The overall online travel and tourism market has also grown massively in the past decade and Portmann said that currently 73 percent of travellers use smartphones to shop and book their trips and 45 percent of hotels globally accept mobile bookings.
The online booking sector has grown in recent years in the region and Tajawal, a Middle Eastern online travel platform, launched a hotel booking engine last year. The Saudi financed and United Arab Emirates headquartered company that started its operations in January 2016, said last June it has exceeded its projected sales targets by 30 percent within the first five months of operation.
Started as a Dubai-based online travel start-up, Tajawal announced last February its collaboration with Visa to provide easy payment solutions to its customers.
Egypt's Travelstart online travel booking company two years ago launched a new portal to allow customers to browse their travel options, make bookings and receive electronic tickets in Arabic.
Further reading on ATM:
- Zawya Special Coverage on Arabian Travel Market
- Day 2: All the news from the second day of ATM 2017
- ATM live blog: All the latest news interviews and insights from the region's biggest tourism showcase
- Arabian Travel Market: Focus on three stars and experiences
- Kuwait to showcase at Dubai ATM multibillion dollar tourism plan
- ATM global stage to open with Expo 2020 legacy debate
© Express 2017
