Wybrane aspekty funkcjonowania OTA na polskim rynku hotelarskim

Abstract

Although online travel agencies (OTA) exist on tourism market since 1996, they represent only a fraction of coverage in scientific tourism literature. Oligopolistic type of OTA market and relations between OTA and hospitality industry are referred mainly in industry journals and press releases. This paper tries to summarize existing knowledge about OTA market and investigate its position in Polish hospitality distribution channels. As previous research indicated that OTA cooperate mainly with business tourism establishments as a research area were chosen 20 Polish cities with highest population number. The number of Polish hotels from official record of Ministry of Sport and Tourism were compared with the number of hotels from a site of an OTA which has the highest market share (Booking.com). Over 90% of Polish hotels cooperate with Booking.com (almost all among 3,4 and 5 star hotels). Given the fragmented nature of Polish hospitality market and growing dependence of online distribution channels, it indicates a strong bargaining power of OTA. For that reason those contracts should be subject of industry specific regulations.