FT.com / Industries / Internet & e-commerce:
"Cendant, the world's largest franchiser of hotels, capped a week of industry consolidation with the purchase of an Australian online hotel room distributor.
The move follows European acquisitions this week by Expedia and Travelocity, two of the biggest US online travel agencies.
Travel is the largest consumer spending category on the internet. In a new report released this week, Forrester Research said it expected $53bn in online leisure travel sales this year in the US alone. The latest forecast is dramatically higher than the $34bn in 2004 sales that Forrester projected in 2002.
Cendant's announcement came a day after Travelocity said it would acquire German online travel site, travelchannel.de. Last month Travelocity also bought Boomerang Voyages, a French tour operator. Earlier this week Expedia announced the purchase of Egencia, a Paris-based online corporate travel company. The wave of acquisitions signals efforts by US online travel companies to break into new, growing markets.
'This is part of the ongoing attempt to expand abroad. The US market is mature and fairly saturated,' said Henry Harteveldt, analyst with Forrester. 'New growth will take place outside US borders. Europe, Australia and Asia will be the biggest markets.'"
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