Cantor Fitzgerald's Outlook For The Online Travel Industry

With its Second Annual Internet and Technology Conference being held in New York this week, Cantor Fitzgerald released a report summarizing its 2015 outlook for Internet stocks. The report included analysts’ 2015 outlook for the online travel industry.

The Numbers

Analysts are forecasting strong growth in the online travel space this year. While global travel bookings are expected to grow year-over-year by 5 percent overall, online travel bookings are expected to grow at twice that rate for the year. According to the report, global online travel bookings will surpass $500 billion in 2015 and account for 45 percent of overall travel bookings.

Analysts believe that the improving U.S. economy will lead to 9 percent year-over-year growth in U.S. online travel bookings.

Mixed Global Bag

Analysts are not so bullish on the travel prospects for the rest of the globe. A strong U.S. dollar and a weak European economy likely means a drop in European travel to the U.S. in 2015. Overall, analysts are predicting a 6 percent rise in online travel bookings in Europe in 2015, down from a 9 percent growth rate in 2014.

However, other parts of the world will likely pick up Europe’s slack. Analysts predict that Asian-Pacific and Latin American online travel bookings will grow by 13 percent and 22 percent, respectively, this year.

The Rise Of Mobile

According to the report, the growing trend in the online travel space will continue to be mobile bookings in 2015. More than 20 percent of online bookings through Priceline Group Inc PCLN, Expedia Inc EXPE and Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. OWW now occur via mobile devices. In addition, over half of TripAdvisor Inc’s TRIP web traffic now comes from mobile devices.