Page 148 - Introduction to Tourism
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Rental Cars
An important aspect of automobile travel is the rental
car industry, whose growth has been paralleling or
exceeding the growth in air travel. While there is no
question about the rental car business having heavy
use by businesses, it also has substantial vacation use
and frequent combination - trip use.
Air travel is critical to the car rental business as airport
revenues account for much of overall car rentals in the
United States. Hertz is the airport market leader with
about 29 percent of the airport rental business.
According to Business Travel News ( BTN ) in their
2007 Business Travel Survey, the rental car industry
grosses around $25 billion. The major companies are
Hertz, Enterprise, Avis, Budget, National, Alamo, Dollar
Thrifty.
Recent years have witnessed a vast change in the
ownership of the major rental car companies, and shifts
continue to take place. Hertz has returned to public
ownership.
In 2007, Vanguard Car Rental Group, the parent of
Alamo and National, announced the sale of these two
brands to Enterprise. Avis Budget Group, Inc., formerly
Cendant Corporation, now owns Avis and Budget.
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