New survey reveals online holiday booking habits of UK consumers
New research reveals the holiday booking habits of British Internet users. 55% book their holidays online, with only 7% using high street travel agents.
Two-thirds of Internet users take two or more holidays a year, whilst ‘silver surfers’ enjoy more regular holidays and make the most of late-booking deals online.
The most popular type of holiday booked online is a beach holiday, followed by a long-haul trip, cruise or fly-drive. Activity holidays are more likely to be booked on the high street. Having said that, I’m not sure this has much to do with the Net itself (beach holidays are popular regardless)
Online booking and research is most common amongst the 25-34 age group, and for people booking within 4 weeks of their departure date.
Commenting on the research, Mike Teasdale, Planning Director at Harvest Digital said, “As the first truly global medium, the Internet has always had a special affinity with the travel industry and powerful new entrants are rumoured to be entering the market, most notably Google with their long-rumoured Google Travel portal. Obviously offline media still has a vital role to play in the marketing mix, but once an online consumer is interested in a specific destination or holiday, they use the Internet
to research and buy.”
Research was based on 863 completed questionnaires.
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