The recent move by the U.S. to do away with travel bans to Cuba will no doubt accelerate an influx of dollars to already booming online travel sales for Latin America, which are expected to reach upwards of $30 billion within the next two years alone according to forecasts by Barclays. Indeed, many predictions indicate that Latin America will be the single global region leading all online travel sales growth over the next few years, with double digit growth far exceeding that of any other region. The historically unprecedented move by American Express (NYSE: AXP) and MasterCard (NYSE: MA) to process transactions located in Cuba and to allow their credit cards to be used in the country should act as a major springboard for overall Latin American tourism.
Latin America’s online travel bookings were up 13 percent in 2013, with online travel agencies (OTAs) making up around 41 percent of the pie. On a broader scale, online travel bookings in general rose at three times the rate of overall travel spending, clearly showing how hot the OTA market is as a segment of the roughly $1.3 trillion global travel market. Online travel booking revenues rose 9.2 percent in 2013 (compared to only 3 percent growth in total travel spending) to around $402 billion according to analysis by PhoCusWright, taking up a third of all bookings. Moreover, relatively low online penetration within Latin America, where the market is still highly developing and fragmented, where independent hotel brands still largely dominate the playing field in key destinations, has created a major opportunity for innovative OTAs with specialized technologies and approaches to capturing this thriving market.
Ongoing consolidation in the OTA space, underscored by the recent activities of sector giant Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE), has created a perfect storm of opportunities for smaller intermediaries and innovators. The $270 million move by Expedia in March this year to take up a minority equity investment in regional leader Decolar.com, giving them access to Decolar’s hotel portfolio in Latin America and giving Decolar access to Expedia’s international hotel supply, is a prime example of the kinds of symbiotic relationships being formed within the industry over the juicy Latin American market. Expedia sees the broader online travel market as being on track for continued consolidation as well – hence their ongoing spending spree that started with the $280 million Travelocity acquisition back in 2013 and subsequent $1.6 billion play to acquire the third largest OTA in North America, Orbitz.
The move by OTA sector leader Expedia (which represents roughly 75 percent of the U.S. online travel market post the Orbitz acquisition) to rapidly expand their footprint in Latin America via the Decolar deal, is a welcome signal to smaller sector innovators focused on the Latin American market like Pure Hospitality Solutions (OTC: PNOW), a developer of proprietary technology, marketing solutions and branding services for hotel operators, condominium owners, and other properties. The announcement by PNOW earlier this month that they joined the National Tourism Center of Costa Rica, giving their digital media-enabled internet booking engine Oveedia access to over 6k hotel lodging and vacation properties throughout the country, is the latest in a series of efforts by the company to capture market share in this much sought after region.
The Oveedia platform is being designed to provide hotels, resorts and vacation properties with a comprehensive means of managing and listing their portfolio of offerings at OTAs, with an internally and externally facing online booking and management system that is specifically geared towards the Central America-Caribbean market. The aforementioned National Tourism Center of Costa Rica and CANATUR (Costa Rica’s Chamber of Commerce) deal, which gives PNOW the ability to immediately canvas CANATUR member properties, follows fast on the heels of the company’s having exclusively signed their first property in the region under the Oveedia OTA, the largely underserved Tango Mar Beachfront Boutique Hotel & Villas. Tango Mar is a solid candidate example representing just one out of the 16k plus Central American-Caribbean hotels and vacation rentals which currently may not even be available within the global OTA space.
The Tango Mar announcement also comes just months after the January 2015 alignment by PNOW with global B2B travel marketplace operator Sabre Travel Network, which gave the company access to Sabre’s sprawling affiliate network of over 125k hotel properties, as well as over 400 airlines, 200 tour operators, 50 rail carriers, 16 cruise lines, and more than 25 car rental agencies. Sabre’s massive distribution system, associated traveler-empowering data-rich solutions and mobile-enabled platform, adds mightily to PNOW’s growing presence as a leading Central American-Caribbean focused OTA travel hub, giving the company a more stable footing in the broader travel space. The Sabre integration grants the Oveedia platform a unique opportunity to quickly branch out into new relationships and broaden its service offerings to Sabre’s considerable database of properties, giving the company a solid backdrop to their core focus on the CAC niche.
Take a closer look at the company and their Oveedia platform by visiting www.purenow.solutions
Let us hear your thoughts: Oriens Travel and Hotel Management Corp. Message Board
