Booking Holdings (BKNG Quick QuoteBKNG - Free Report) is riding on a strong travel demand environment. The company is benefiting from its robust travel booking offerings, flight capabilities and solid partner base.

Strategic partnerships have been playing important roles in shaping the company’s growth trajectory by driving momentum across its consumer-facing brands, including Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, KAYAK and OpenTable.

Strong Partner Base: A Key Catalyst

Recently, Agoda signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Singapore Tourism Board to promote Singapore as a top destination in Southeast Asia by spotlighting Singapore brands and attractions on the back of its expertise in online travel, and its partner networks. This deal is expected to aid Agoda in gaining traction among Singapore travelers.

Booking.com’s partnership with the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center in order to boost the inclusion of LGBTQ+ travel experiences, remains noteworthy. This is expected to aid the company’s traction among LGBTQ+ travelers.

Agoda’s partnership with DBS to introduce a reward point redemption system for Hong Kong customers is a positive. With this, Agoda’s Hong Kong customers holding DBS$ and COMPASS Dollar credit cards can experience seamless redemption while making hotel payments at the site.

Agoda also collaborated with Meituan to boost the China travel market by sharing hotel inventories, content and critical business domains.

Booking.com teamed up with Peerspace to offer exclusive discounts on hotels and rental cars to event organizers who book venues on Peerspace and their confirmed attendees.

Priceline’s long-term partnership with Amadeus to enhance its air distribution and IT capabilities by accessing content through the Amadeus Travel Platform is a plus.

These strategic partnerships are expected to help this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company to sustain its customer momentum in the online travel booking market, which, per an MMR report, is expected to reach $1.18 trillion by 2030, witnessing a CAGR of 9.7% between 2024 and 2030.

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In 2023, the company’s gross travel bookings were $150.6 billion, which increased 24% from the prior year.

For 2024, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for gross bookings is pegged at $162.01 billion, indicating growth of 7.6% from the 2023 reported level.

Solid growth in bookings will drive the overall financial performance of Booking Holdings.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 revenues is pegged at $23.09 billion, indicating year-over-year growth of 8.1%. The same for earnings is pegged at $178.54 per share, which has been unchanged over the past 30 days, suggesting a year-over-year rise of 17.3%.

Competitive Edge Aids Prospects

A strong partner base, coupled with solid customer momentum, will continue to help Booking Holdings enjoy a competitive advantage against its peers, namely Expedia Group (EXPE Quick QuoteEXPE - Free Report) , TripAdvisor (TRIP Quick QuoteTRIP - Free Report) and Airbnb (ABNB Quick QuoteABNB - Free Report) , which are also leaving no stone unturned to capitalize on the strong travel demand trend.

BKNG has gained 12.6% year to date against EXPE and TRIP’s losses of 18% and 16.4%, respectively. BKNG has also outperformed ABNB’s return of 8.3% in the same time frame.

Booking Holdings and Expedia enjoy a duopoly in the online travel booking industry. Both juggernauts accounted for about 60 percent of all travel bookings in Europe and the United States in 2023. Meanwhile, Airbnb captured the third spot in the market.

Conclusion

Booking Holdings’ strong brand recognition, competitive position, compelling services, expanding global footprints and growing investments in generative AI technology are expected to benefit its near-term prospects amid geopolitical tensions.

BKNG currently has a Value Score of B, which presents a strong entry point for investors.