Travel brands and PR agencies will never issue the results of a study without some spin attached – but now it appears even an organisation as respected as ABTA is at it, too.
The travel agent group has released the findings of its 2012 Consumer Travel Trends Survey, after talking to just over 2,000 Brits about their travel booking habits. The study was carried out online by Arkenford.
The headline is that travel agents (its members) are “more valued and more used” than ever after ABTA discovered a leap from 30% in 2011 to 40% in 2012 to the question of whether people “value the services a travel agent offers”.
Those without an opinion fell from 50% in 2011 to 41% in 2012. Those that disagreed fell 1% to 20% over the same period.
“The percentage of people booking a foreign holiday through a high street travel agent has grown from 17% in 2010, to 25% in 2011 and 27% in 2012,” says ABTA.
The organisation also says youngsters are now the biggest fans of travel agents, with 45% of 15-24 year olds valuing the services of agents compared to 30% in 2011.
What else?
The study also found that four out of ten 15-44 year olds in 2012 preferred the “reassurance of dealing with someone face-to-face when booking”. This was an increase from around 25% last year.
This is apparently the “digital generation” needing “guidance and help with the bewildering choice available on the internet”.
Top ABTA PR wonk, Victoria Bacon, says:
“It is increasingly apparent that people are realising the benefits of what a travel agent can offer. The internet has been fantastic in opening up choice but the survey shows that consumers value the help of a human being and the reassurance of dealing with someone face to face.”
Whether the questions (certainly the “I value the services a travel agent offers” didn’t state the option of online as an alternative) can be translated into the conclusions given above is a matter for debate.
What would be more valuable is discovering what types of trips people are booking or advice they are seeking through their visits to agents.
If there is a increase in the number of bucket and spade trips, then that might certainly be a surprise to some and worth noting, but any kind of growth in cruise, ski or other specialist activity holiday queries is perhaps to be expected?
Nevertheless, another headline could easily have read: “Still less than half of travellers value a travel agent and 60% either have no opinion or disagree”.
Also, worth pondering if 40% say they value travel agents then why are only 27% of travellers then booking through the offline channel?
NB: We have requested the full suite of questions in the report from ABTA.
UPDATE: ABTA will not release the full research report, saves it for PR activity during the coming months.
NB2: Study image via Shutterstock.
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About Kevin May
Sitting next to a 60 year old woman from London traveling to Las Vegas and San Francisco yesterday, I was surprised that she booked everything through her local high street travel agent, but she told me that was where she was able to find the best deals to a package tours to both cities. She even compared direct website rates of both of the hotels (Bellagio in LV and Tuscan Inn in SF) and the agent was able to beat it be 10% or so, plus, she received the liability coverage. These agencies are finding inventory that is powered by one of the three U.S. based hotel aggregators–Tourico, Hotelbeds and GTA.
Its not the web that’s bewildering as much as the whole on line travel marketplace and distribution landscape, including social media (where studies are now saying recommendations from social media are a tiny % of influencers in travel buying behaviour
The observation comes as no shock to me at all, I’ve been saying the same for months
Hello Jake,
I sat next to a 65 year old women on the plane that said she only books travel on her Iphone app because she manages a hedge fund and doesn’t have time to go to high street.
Cheers,
Tim
PS. See you at Pow Wow
I believe if you’re put next to people who “manage a hedge fund” you can ask to be moved. The crew would understand…
Tnooz node-age is spot on to treat these surveys with some scepticism, after all a survey is only as good as the data provided and questions asked, and as the old Swahili proverb (from an ancient google search) goes, “he who asks for salt does so for his own cooking pot.”
People who book with travel agents (hello) search online. They check online. The probe online. They test online. They visit 6-23 sites (take your pick). They like (and dislike) online. And they book online. And they book offline. Why? Because it’s bloody complicated.
For offline to survive it has to embrace online. For the most part it has. Even Trailfinders, who most think are a little bit web phobic, have a brilliant online after-service – up there with Expedia IMO.
As I said in a tweet, not all offline TA’s went away, some are just busy toddling along doing their thang. Moreover roundtheworldflights.com do offer exceedingly good RTWs. Just thought I’d get that online plug in. Us offline chaps need all the help we can get
Ok so what surveys do we trust? The ones we want to?
Travel planning to a degree is as simple or as difficult as you want to make it, it varies from person to person – there are mass generalisations out there about this, many of which are not firmly supported by evidence. There is a danger of the tail wagging the dog here, ie we assume people are making 6-23 visits because we think the process is complicated (so they MUST have to do that) – this is just not always true.
I find myself getting very selective in how many/what travel articles i read, as the sheer volume of these gives the impression of mass complexity as everyone seems to want to put their own spin on travel, often without much concrete evidence (or even surveys!) to support it.
I go on a cruise every year, I’m a repeat customer of Royal Caribbean and Cunard, One 20 minute visit to my travel agent is the extent of my travel planning every year!!!
I would also expect that numbers depend on the type of trip. And whereas a friendly face cannot be replaced by a machine, travel options are bewildering – this is why I started routeRANK – whether booked online or offline. Technology can help in both cases, allowing the traveler to find better options more easily and allowing the agent to be more productive at their job.