The leading companies in the online travel agency industry are Expedia, Travelocity (which owns Lastminute.com), Orbitz, Priceline, Cheaptickets and a host of others.
The online agents compete both with traditional travel agents (American Express, Thomas Cook, Carlson) and direct online sales by airlines, cruise lines and car rental companies.
Their biggest business is selling airline tickets, where they employ the services of computerized airline reservation systems such as Sabre, Amadeus, Worldspan and Galileo.
Use Porter's five forces framework to predict the likely profitability of the online travel agency industry over the next ten years.