Online travel operators show strong growth

wednesday 7 november, 2007

Online travel operators are showing enormous growth. This while traditional operators have shown a decrease in the number of clients.

'The new online touroperators who fully utilise the possibilities of the internet and have fully automated their processes are growing rapidly", says Martin van Kranenburg - online marketing specialist at Libralab.nl

The results of the study are based on the top 40 tour operators in the industry magazine Reisrevue.

By comparing the passenger figures of Dutch travel agencies from 2002 to 2006 Kranenburg came to this conclusion. That this growth is explosive is shown by figures of Weekendjeweg.nl, which showed an increase of 213% in the number of passengers using their service.

Van Kranenburg concludes this increase is due to the strong relationship online travel agencies have with their clients. Also, costs are lower - "the administrative costs for online travel agencies are lower due to travel documents and bills are sent digitally", adds Kranenburg.

Kranenburg warns traditional operators about the future, saying "traditionale tour operators will have to use various brands online to communicate with the client directly, otherwise the traditional touroperator model will be under threat from technological advances".

Source: Twinkle