The online travel industry is bracing itself for more consolidation after last week's £209m ($404m) purchase of Ebookers by Cendant, the world's largest travel group.
The deal, which followed Cendant's recent $1.25bn acquisition of Orbitz, the second largest travel site in the US, caused shares in Lastminute.com, a rival to Ebookers, to rise 15 per cent. Europe has become the battle ground for US online travel operators looking for growth opportunities. This is because online penetration in Europe - how many consumers book travel online - is barely 10 per cent compared with 30 per cent in the US.
Acquisition has become the preferred route for US operators trying to break into Europe because the continent is such a diverse market.
"Europe is harder to break into than the US because it is more fragmented. That fragmentation has meant higher costs of entry," said Brent Hoberman, chief executive of Lastminute.com. He added that "to be able to compete you need to be a scale player and you need to be able to invest in technology".
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