SELLING TRAVEL AS PART OF A PACKAGE. IMPLICATIONS FOR TRANSPORT RESEARCH.

Abstract

The selling of long-distance travel as a package has its origins in the latter half of the last century and the practice has been instrumental in turning travel into a consumer item. Packaging is found to be significant in the Australian airline market while the degree of concentration in travel wholesaling and air transport is high. Travel packageing can be characterised as “price building”, a strategy which has been growing in popularity in competitive service sectors. This paper explorers optimal business strategies that take advantage of building, but it is shown that there are implications for policy analysis and for studies of travel demand. The relevance of bundling in transport research is illustrated while noting that there has been a lack of attention to the subject. Opportunities for further research are suggested.