The global online travel market may be in its infancy, but worldwide online travel sales will near US$200 billion in 2006. By the end of next year, another $50 billion in online travel will be sold, reports Ehotelier.com.

Travel providers have responded in kind with a host of leisure travel offerings in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific. In India, venture capital money flows freely for start-ups such as MakeMyTrip and Cleartrip. Giant European tour operators such as TUI and Thomas Cook have accelerated their Internet strategies. And US online travel providers continue to see much of their shareholder wealth coming from outside the US.

This focus on the newly empowered leisure customer begs the question: What about corporate travel? Certainly, online corporate travel has ramped up more slowly than leisure travel in the US, which should mean it is just a fledgling market in other parts of the world.

The truth is that online corporate travel is still small (representing less than 5% of total corporate travel) in both Europe and Asia Pacific, according to PhoCusWright's report, Corporate Travel Distribution: Key Markets. But these markets are waking up - quickly. Travel providers need to have a global strategy in place now to exploit this opportunity later.

Globalisation will be a force in determining competitive advantage in business in general and online corporate travel specifically. There are a number of market dynamics that will stimulate the globalisation of online corporate travel, including the following:

US Online Corporate Booking Tool Experience. US online corporate booking tool providers such as GetThere, CWT and Concur are parlaying the online experience and success of their US-based clients in Europe . US and multinational corporations (rather than local/regional) present the ripest opportunity for online booking adoption today.

Content Fragmentation. Because Europe is highly fragmented in terms of access to content (75% of hotel properties are independent and not part of chains), online booking and other Web-based tools will serve as the "aggregators" for the market.

No-Frills Carriers. With 95% of their tickets sold direct and online, their dominance in the leisure and short haul travel markets and current efforts to tap the business traveller with targeted routes, schedules and services, low-cost carriers (LCCs) are an important component to driving the online corporate travel market.

Internet Advertising Spend. The sheer cost effectiveness of the online advertising model will drive corporations to shift spend away from print and other traditional advertising channels like outdoor (billboards, posters and transit cards). In the UK, for example, the Internet is replacing national newspapers, cinema and radio as the primary channel for travel advertising expenditures.

Globalisation is just one of several forces shaping the corporate travel marketplace. Other trends include content acquisition, portals and the battle for wallet share. And, by 2008, this sleeping giant (the online corporate travel market) will represent 22% of the total corporate travel market in Europe and just under 10% in APAC.

These and many more corporate travel trends, as well as market sizing, forecasting, and an analysis of the impact on the travel distribution landscape are presented in the upcoming PhoCusWright report, Corporate Travel Distribution: Key Markets.

For the complete article, go to http://ehotelier.com

To order the report, go to www.phocuswright.com

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