As summer leisure travel leads recovery, particularly in the U.S., road trips are driving domestic travel forward.
To help meet demand, Amadeus and Expedia Group are teaming up to expand access to mobility content. This will offer customers more options to search and book their preferred car vendors on Expedia Group sites. The collaboration between our teams and car rental companies to further promote availability and choices to travelers is critical to helping the industry rebuild.
Amadeus is seeing car bookings climb 96 per cent year-to-date compared to 2020, with no signs of slowing. And a recent study from Market Research Future estimates that the global market size of the car rental industry will grow 7.9 per cent by 2023, with North America the major contributor to this growth.
With this expanded strategic partnership, Expedia Group’s family of brands – Expedia, Egencia, Travelocity, Orbitz, CarRentals.com and CheapTickets – will benefit long-term from our global footprint, technology and depth of car content.
The company recently added 13 new car rental providers onto the platform, which takes the total portfolio to 40 car rental and 33 transfer providers in more than 3,500 cities and 191 countries worldwide through the Amadeus Travel Platform.
Amadeus’ technology will allow customers easy access to find and book cars, helping boost conversions, and gaining traction with this new content as we see domestic travel gain momentum. In addition, Expedia Group’s ability to harness the power and scale of data to help travelers at every stage of their journey means that car partners benefit from end-to-end booking experiences from travelers booking on the platform.
Revving up for the future
Despite periods of uncertainty, according to a recent Expedia Group study, customers are making travel a financial priority and are thinking differently about the factors that may influence their buying decisions. One of the key travel-booking decisions centers on flexibility with cancellation policies.
The insights reveal that people want to “book with trusted travel providers which will protect their investment.” The study even points to the trend of North American millennials valuing flexibility in car rental decisions.
The car segment is playing a key role in rebuilding travel, and Amadeus is making strides to ensure agents have the breadth of content to secure a rental or transfer for their travelers. Even though the industry is experiencing challenges with supply and demand, Amadeus is pressing forward to widen its portfolio and gain momentum on the road to recovery.
