Online travel sales more than doubled in the space of a year, during the first quarter.
“The journey is picking up color, which is a very good thing”, commented this morning Marc Lolivier, general delegate of the Federation of e-commerce and distance selling (Fevad). Sales of tourism, transport and leisure services jumped by +138.5% in the first quarter of 2022, compared to the same quarter in 2021.
What about 2019, the benchmark year for our sector? Still among the leading sites, “the growth of e-tourism is nil, specified Marc Lolivier at a press conference. We are back to the level of 2019. We have caught up, in a way, with the delay” due to the pandemic.
A month of March that exceeds 2019
Fevad even observes an encouraging acceleration of e-tourism, which has a strong impact on the overall results of e-commerce.
In March 2022, the “tourism” activity indeed rose above the level of March 2019, by around 18%. “A real momentum has taken hold,” rejoices Marc Lolivier. A strong dynamic that travel agencies, tour operators and airlines are also seeing.
“E-tourism is driving e-commerce. All business sectors combined, online sales growth reached 18.4% compared to the first quarter of 2019, but also 11.8% compared to the first quarter of 2021.
The only downside: inflation, which increases selling prices in all areas.
Booking ranked 7th among sites
During the Fevad press conference, the audience firm Médiamétrie presented the trends for the first quarter.
In terms of traffic, the top three remain unchanged. Amazon, Leboncoin and Cdiscount lead the dance on the French market.
Booking climbs to 7th place in the top 10 sites and applications, with 13 million unique visitors per month, on average. SNCF Connect (ex-Oui.sncf), he only recorded 9.7 million visits while he is generally on the heels of the hotel reservation specialist. Blame it, no doubt, on the malfunctions during its launch at the end of January.
