The Internet has brought the world to travelers’ fingertips.
Vacationers are skipping their travel agents and going straight to the Internet to research, plan and book their trips sifting through the hundreds of travel services that have come on line the last several years.
“It’s all about putting consumers in control of their travel,” said Michael Stacy, senior vice president of consumer marketing at Travelocity.com (www.travelocity.com), one of the leading on-line travel services.
Vacationers now have the ability to compare air fares and routes and even bid for cheap hotel rooms.
But this do-it-yourself trend doesn’t come without a price. Many Internet surfers can end up confused, book trips that are too expensive or destroy their plans.
And the new on-line industry, dominated by airline reservations, is forcing traditional travel agents to reinvent themselves and become experts in specific fields, rather than rely on dwindling airfare commissions.
More than 54 million U.S. adults, or 25 percent, turned to the Internet to gather information, get prices or check schedules relating to travel last year. That’s up nearly 75 percent from just two years ago, according to a recent report by the Travel Industry Association of America.
“If you look at survey results, usage is off the charts,” said Gary Leopold, president and chief executive officer at Boston-based Irma S. Mann Strategic Marketing Inc. “I think we’ll continue to see exponential growth because more and more people are becoming comfortable with the medium.”
The $4 billion on-line travel industry is made up of a wide range of sites from full-service Internet travel agencies and airline Web sites to bidding sites and Web auctions. On-line travel sales are expected to reach $6.3 billion this year and soar to $16.3 billion by 2003, according to Jupiter Communications, an Internet research firm.
Let mouse do your walking
Traveler beware
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