Yahoo Finance Booking Holdings (BKNG) to Lure Travelers With Recent Tie-Ups
Booking Holdings’ BKNG subsidiary Priceline entered into a New Distribution Capability agreement with two of the International Airlines Group’s brands, British Airways and Iberia.
On the back of this partnership, Priceline aims to provide customers traveling in British Airways and Iberia with great domestic and international travel deals.
Moreover, users making travel bookings on Priceline can access the airline group’s complete range of fares and product offerings.
The collaboration is aimed at helping BKNG’s brand Agoda to bolster its flight and connected trip proposition within the Asia Pacific region.
Further, the New Distribution Capability agreement has expanded inventory across Booking Holdings.
The recent partnership with British Airways and Iberia is expected to help Priceline gain momentum among travelers, thereby driving BKNG’s top line in the days ahead.
Booking Holdings Inc. Price and Consensus
Booking Holdings Inc. price-consensus-chart | Booking Holdings Inc. Quote
Priceline Division in Focus
Priceline is a leading online travel agency known best for offering discount rates on travel-related purchases, such as airline tickets and hotel stays.
Priceline is steadily making progress, primarily in the U.S. domestic travel market with the country showing faster signs of recovery than the global travel market from the impacts of the COVID-19.
Apart from the recent partnership, Priceline, in collaboration with the leading tours and activities business Musement, introduced Priceline Experiences to dish out a flurry of activities for travelers to spice up their outings.
Priceline also collaborated with a high-speed network connectivity provider T-Mobile U.S. The latter provides exclusive Priceline deals, backed by BKNG’s division Rocket Travel on the T-Mobile TRAVEL vacation website.
Competitive Travel Market
Growing initiatives in Priceline position Booking Holdings well to capitalize on the prospects in the booming travel market.
Per a ResearchAndMarkets report, the global travel market is likely to reach $451.2 billion by 2026, witnessing a CAGR of 13.9% during the 2022-2026 forecast period.
This is likely to aid BKNG win investors’ confidence in the near and long terms. Shares of BKNG have been down 14.9% in the year-to-date period, outperforming the Retail-Wholesale sector’s decline of 24.6%.
Given the solid potential in the travel market, not only BKNG but other online travel agencies like TripAdvisor TRIP, Expedia EXPE and Airbnb ABNB are also making strong efforts to expand their presence in this market.
TripAdvisor is riding on its Tripadvisor Plus subscription offerings. Additionally, its growing partnerships remain positive. In March, TRIP collaborated with Walgreens to promote the latter’s COVID-19 testing solutions so that travelers who are symptomatic, unvaccinated or planning to engage in a mixed group of vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, can enjoy safe trips. TRIP lost 30.3% in the year-to-date period.
Expedia is gaining traction from customers owing to its robust portfolio offerings. Moreover, its website provides travelers with destination and flight plan choices, details of the places to be visited, maps, local restaurants, things to do, cruises, special offers and consumer reviews, so that they can book according to their preferences. EXPE etched down 46.4% in the same timeframe.
Airbnb’s growing technological efforts to attract more hosts and guests to its platform remain noteworthy. ABNB recently joined forces with Visit Bloomington to promote safe travel with a focus on local attractions, unique stays and experiences to boost travel demand in Bloomington. The partnership also focuses on supporting local shops, restaurants and the city’s workforce, which largely depends on the local tourism industry. ABNB moved 44.1% south in the year-to-date period.
Nevertheless, Priceline’s growing services and strategic partnerships are expected to help BKNG boost its competitive edge against the above-mentioned peers.
Currently, Booking Holdings carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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