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Survey: Online travel planning surges; online booking lags
ATLANTA (CNN) -- Online travel planning is experiencing a boom, but many people still are wary of booking reservations on the Internet, according to the latest report released by the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA). It shows 52.2 million people used the Internet last year for travel planning. That's 15 times the number using the Net three years ago. The TIA based its figures on a survey of 1,200 adults in the United States. Despite that surge, online booking rose only 206 percent in 1997 and 1998, the TIA says. Of the 52.2 million online travel planners in 1999, only 16.5 million booked and paid for reservations on the Web. "It's like a shopping mall," says Chris McGinnis, a travel industry analyst and manager of travelskills.com. "Most people in a shopping mall aren't buying. They're window shopping." The TIA cites security and customer service as the top reasons online travel planners aren't booking on the Net. "A lot of people still have concerns about privacy, and they still have some concerns about credit card security," says Chris Schutte, of PhoCusWright, an Internet travel research company. "Both of those are decreasing quickly, and we find that as soon as someone actually consummates a purchase online, both of those fears go way down." Where are online travelers going to book reservations? According to the TIA: William Maloney, executive vice president and COO of the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), says he doesn't think the Internet poses a threat to travel agents. "Right now travel agents in the United States do in excess of $126 billion worth of sale," he says. "We still expect the travel agents to prosper and to control the lion's share of domestic and international travel in the years to come." ASTA says travel agents will always be needed to help interpret and confirm what travelers find on the Internet. RELATED RESOURCES: CNN Weather Forecasts RELATED STORIES: New Web tools changing the face of travel RELATED SITES: Travel Industry Association of America | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CNN's Kalin Thomas-Samuel reports on how online travel planning has increased, but most travel bookings are still done using travel agents.
