Annual spending on leisure travel, at $650.8 billion in 2015, far exceeds spending on business travel, which totaled $296.3 billion during the same period, according to the U.S. Travel Association (http://dtn.fm/4Y0zB). But travelers are increasingly mixing business travel with leisure by extending their trips and combining the two. Monaker Group, Inc. (OTCQB: MKGI) serves this market through its subsidiaries, NextTrip.com, a real-time online booking platform, and Maupintour, which specializes in luxury and customized tours.
Monaker Group’s NextTrip.com and Maupintour offer technology-driven platforms which enable travelers to learn, plan, and execute their trips online. BridgeStreet Global Hospitality (http://dtn.fm/4B4iz) has found that travelers want sightseeing, dining and arts/culture in locations they were already traveling to for business.
According to the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) (http://dtn.fm/rqAV7), 45% of employees at firms with less than 250 employees extended trips, compared to 38% at companies with 250-499 employees and just 30% at companies of 500 or more.
Some 52% are extending business trips with leisure travel with a spouse or significant other, the GBTA’s Business Travel Sentiment Index™ found in 2015. Further, 63% use the opportunity to explore the destination, and 48% said they would visit family or friends.
In the 2016 GBTA Index survey, mobile devices, social networks and apps were noted as important business travel tools. Some 72% of millennials and 64% of all business travelers check their travel itineraries at least once a day, and some 31% said they prefer to use electronic receipts instead of hard copies for tracking expenses.
Monaker Group has its own Monaker Booking Engine (MBE), which, in real time, has a global inventory of air, lodging, and tours, all viewable from a single online site. Travel bookings can be organized for the business traveler, the leisure traveler, or both. Monaker recently announced plans to release its own app for NextTrip on Android and iOS by the end of January 2017.
Additionally, Monaker Group has access to alternative lodging options for the traveler on its NextTrip.com site, with rentals of private residences or unused timeshare rooms in managed properties. In a news release, Bill Kerby, chairman and CEO of Monaker Group, said that the company is well positioned to take advantage of the trend to alternative lodging and travel. Monaker’s management team believes that the alternative lodging rental (ALR) market will reach $169 billion by 2019 and sees it as the fastest-growing segment of the business.
The company believes it is able to leverage its more than 60 years in leisure travel with new technology to best deliver its services. It said it plans to introduce artificial intelligence to NextTrip.com in the future under its ‘Travel Made Easy’ platform. Alternative travel includes everything from private residences available for rent to fractional shares of timeshare resort rooms.
Through NextTrip.com, Monaker Group is able to bring all of these elements in an online platform to the prospective traveler. Through Maupintour, it can organize even more specialized travel. Maupintour offers unique and luxury tours with a high repeat rate among travelers. Millennials want a single source for their combined business and leisure travel.
For more information, please visit www.MonakerGroup.com
