The Sliding Demand For Travel Agents
A recent study has indicated that travel agents continue to be on the losing end of the flight booking stick.
The results, which were released by travel and food market researchers Zagat, showed that only 8 percent of the currently booked flights are carried out with the assistance of travel agents. This represents a drop of 9 percent over the 17 percent share recorded in 2007 and which were at nearly 25 percent four years ago.
By contrast, internet flight booking experienced a huge surge over the past decade. Today, 64 percent of flight bookings are carried out online. The 2008 numbers were at 60 percent and 55 percent for 2005.
This data reveals that vacationers and travellers have en-mass switched over the carrier’s website to make their reservations, although the popularity of travel specialist websites such as Expedia and Travelocity appeared to have leveled off.
These have held steady with a near 15 percent for three years of the market share. Of all the ways of booking studied by the market researcher, people who called to make their won reservations represented the smallest share, with only 4 percent of travellers doing so.
The Zagat survey was the fourth one of its kind carried out on an annual basis. The poll questioned 5,895 international travellers.
To no one’s surprise, his year’s numbers revealed a drop in general air travel, with 33 percent of respondents claiming to be flying less often, thus echoing the general state of the economy.
The arrival of the internet has completely changed the way people do business and the travel industry has not escaped from that fact.
Just in terms of information, the web is now seen as the primary source. This has opened up so many opportunities and some of them have greatly affected the travel agency sector. In the past regarded as reliable provider of information for destinations, most agents have sadly become little more than ticket bookers.
The internet has also facilitated the introduction of budget carriers such as Ryanair and AirAsia, which do most of their business online and basically cut the ‘middle man’.
