GetThere: Online Bookings Surpass Pre-Sept. Levels

Online corporate travel bookings in January surpassed those levels seen before September of last year and now account for about 45 percent of total bookings at companies, according to GetThere, a subsidiary of Southlake, Texas-based Sabre Holdings Corp., which today announced its findings in the latest Corporate Travel Benchmark survey of 100 companies with a $52 million average corporate travel spend.

The upswing could indicate a new emphasis on online corporate travel systems for cost savings (BTN, Feb. 11), as most company's polled by GetThere cited increased executive involvement in corporate travel. CFOs alone were more involved this year than one year ago at 65 percent of polled companies, for instance. Online bookings at individual companies were up an average 21 percent over last year's survey, which indicated 24 percent of total bookings were done online.