Webjet has warned travel agents to expect their share of the package market to dwindle as consumers become comfortable with booking dynamic product online.
Managing director, John Guscic, revealed that revenue from its dynamic packaging product has topped $18 million since it launched last year, with the potential for further growth “huge”.
Within three to five years revenue will grow to “hundreds of millions of dollars”, he predicted.
“The $18 million in dynamic packaging sales is $18 million that didn’t go to bricks and mortar agents,” Guscic told Travel Today after Webjet’s annual general meeting yesterday. “It’s not as if we have taken share from online players because no one else is doing it. So it would seem we have taken it from offline.”
That trend will continue as consumers become familiar with the “complex technology innovations that match any flight with any hotel with any duration”.
An analysis of Webjet’s early package sales found bookings were skewed towards Queensland and mid haul beach destination of Bali, Phuket and Fiji. But Guscic said that range would widen as consumers understand the ease of booking multi-stop and multi destination packages.
“It doesn’t matter how far the destination is,” Guscic said. “It’s about a level of confidence that will come over time. The proof is already there that consumers are comfortable booking packages online.”
Guscic likened the potential growth to that of Webjet’s core flights business which began with consumers booking domestic airfares before progressing to long haul international flights.
“That is why we said dynamic packaging has the potential to be as big as our flight business,” he said. “It is a huge opportunity.”
Meanwhile, Zuji will launch a TV campaign in January as part of its repositioning with Guscic promising a look and feel that is “different from anything else in the market”.
