Press room

Madrid September 20, 2007

OVER 85% OF INTERNET USERS IN EUROPE USE THE INTERNET TO ORGANISE THEIR HOLIDAY TRIPS

• The Internet has become the most widely used source of information, ahead of travel agencies or the phone

• In Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and Germany, more than 70% of internet users have used the internet to book hotel rooms

• Spanish, Italian and German travellers value highly the availability of Wi-Fi areas as an important factor when choosing their hotel

• NH Hoteles plans to increase its sales via the internet by more than 80% this year

All over Europe the Internet has become the main source of information and booking for organising trips. This is shown by the results of a study carried out by Sunovate in Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and the United Kingdom for the multinational NH Hoteles which analyses, among other points, the importance of new technologies for planning trips and when choosing where to stay on the basis of facilities and services. In all these countries, more than 85% of the people surveyed who had internet connections confirmed that they had used it to prepare some of their holiday trips, and over 70% had even booked rooms on-line.

The data of the study show that the internet is becoming increasingly important not only for tourists but also for business trips. In either case, this channel has become an essential tool for improving travel management and planning every detail of a trip more efficiently. The Internet enables travellers to find out more about where they are going, and they can choose from a wider range of options based on a larger number of criteria. It also means that they spend less time on booking.

Finding information when organising a trip

Organising a trip involves, for the vast majority of people, a lot of work getting information in advance. There is a great deal of difference in how this is done for holiday and business trips. In the first case, the percentage of people who say they do not seek information is virtually zero, in the second case it varies between 24.1% for Italians and 42.7% for Dutch. This is because of the very different reasons for making the two types of trip; business trips are often organised by specifically trained staff, and the reason for making the trip means that there is little interest in finding out more about the place being visited.

In tourist trips, internet is the most widely used source of information for people with internet access, either at home or at work, much more so than travel agencies, friends or specialised publications. Although its percentage is very high, Italy is the country which makes least use of the internet, with 86.1% of those surveyed, almost the same level as Spain (88.9%) and Germany (89%), while in the United Kingdom the percentage is 93.1%.

Where do you go to look for information when organising a holiday trip?

Travel agencies are still very important in a large part of the continent, except in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, where less than 40% say they have used their services. What friends advise is very important in Italy (53.2%), while Spain is the country with the lowest proportion of users who complement their information searches with help from the press (12.8%).

The above figures change for business trips. Internet is still the source of information used most often. The countries with the fewest users who do without the internet are the Netherlands (40.7%) and Spain (43.8%), compared to 50.9% in Germany. Travel agencies are particularly important in Italy and Spain, while the advice and recommendations of friends and acquaintances accounts for more than 20% in Germany and Italy.

Where do you go to look for information when organising a business trip?



Booking through the internet, the most practical option

When booking a room, the speed and convenience of the internet mean that it has moved into the top positions among the different sources of information available. For holiday trips, tourists with internet connections use this source more than any other. Without overlooking other possibilities, in Spain 73% of travellers say they have made on-line reservations at one time or another, more than the 70% for Italy, but well below the 78% of Germany and the Netherlands, and the 87% of users in the United Kingdom. The second most widely used option are travel agencies, in particular in Italy (48%) and Germany (46%). The phone option is little used in the Netherlands (22%) and Spain (30%), but is used much more in Italy (42%).



When one looks at the trends for business trips, the figures change because of the fact that the hotel bookings are in most cases not made by the traveller, but rather by the company. When this is not the case, internet is the option most commonly used in all the countries analysed, especially in Germany (42%). In Spain, the percentage of internet users who say they have used the internet for this purpose is only 30% of those asked. This is much the same as the figure for those who decide to go to a travel agency (27%).

There are interesting differences between the way men and women behave. In Spain, men tend to make greater use of the internet to book rooms than do women (80% compared to 66%). This difference also holds for business trips (38% compared to 22%), and is just as marked in Germany and Britain, where only 29% of women say they have used the internet to make hotel bookings, compared to 52% of men.



Internet connections in hotels

technology is starting to become an element that is much taken into account by hotel guests when deciding between one hotel or another. In Spain, Italy and Germany, more than half the tourists say that the fact that the hotel has a Wi-Fi area (wireless internet connection) is a factor that is quite or very important when making a booking. In the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, on the other hand, this factor is not deemed as important, and only comes before issues such as being allowed to bring pets into the room or whether or not there are specific activities for children.

To what extent do you agree that it is important for a hotel room to have a wireless internet connection?



NH adapts to new internet uses

The growing importance of the internet when arranging trips has made for a change in tourists' travelling habits. The fact that there is more information available on the internet has enabled users to discover new destinations, find out more about them and increase their possibilities to travel to such destinations as it has become easier to find offers and competitive prices.

Given this change in traveller profile, NH Hoteles has over the last year embarked upon a major update of its website, building up the aspects that customers are calling for more in their internet relationship with the hotel chain. In this regard, greater space has been given to information about not just hotels by providing more detailed descriptions, photos and virtual visits, but also about destinations in general. Thus, the search tools available have been updated, integrating the use of points of interest, access routes and a simple, highly efficient system to find the best prices in any hotel in the chain on each day of the week.

The NH Hoteles portal has been redesigned to improve the user experience, by simplifying the booking process so that it is faster and more precise. The Company thus plans to boost its web sales by more than 80% this year compared to 2006.

The company's internet strategy has, in turn, been strengthened by starting up Bonhocio (www.bonhocio.com), the first "low cost" booking portal on the market, and the boost given by the network of tourist blogs Vive la Ciudad (www.vivelaciudad.es), which now covers the cities of Santiago de Compostela, Madrid, Barcelona, Seville and Salamanca. This pioneering initiative, developed for NH Hoteles by the company Weblogs SL, has specialised local editors who are permanently updated local information of interest about leisure and tourism. Internet users can get new, real-time information, adapt content to their tastes, share their experiences with other users and comment the posts that are the core of each blog. Tourists can use these virtual spaces to find out more directly about the destination and can plan future trips successfully.

ABOUT NH HOTELES

NH Hoteles (www.nh-hotels.com) is the third largest business hotel chain in Europe. NH Hoteles has 335 hotels with 48,825 rooms in 21 countries in Europe, America and Africa. NH Hoteles now has 32 projects for new hotels under construction, which will provide more than 6,000 further rooms.

NH hotels are well known for their quality of service and facilities, and are decorated uniformly and very carefully with a view to pleasing all tastes, so that customers feel comfortable. The establishments of NH Hoteles offer state-of-the-art technologies to help customers in communications, work and entertainment.

The restaurant facilities are another of the priorities of the hotels in the chain, which offers its customers top-quality food. Furthermore, NH Hoteles and the famous restaurant owner Ferran Adrià, who became an associate of the chain in 2000, have launched new concepts such as "nhube", areas that are the first of their kind in the hotel industry, which combine restaurants, leisure and rest facilities for the chain's customers, and "Fast Good".

The NH Group is listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange (it is in the selective Ibex 35).

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Communication Department of NH Hoteles
Tel: + 34 91 451 97 62
+ 34 91 451 97 18 (switchboard)
e-mail: comunicacion@nh-hotels.com

BOOKING CENTRE
Tel: 902 115 116 (From Spain)
Tel: +800 0115 0116 (Only from A, BE, FRA, GER, IRL, NL, ITL, PT, SWTZ, UK)
Tel: +34 91 398 44 00 (From other countries)
Web: http://www.nh-hotels.com