Similarly, in a study of 60,000 Internet users, Forrester found that the number of people booking online travel has dropped by 9% from 2005 to 2007.
Apparently, found Forrester, people do not like to spend hours using search filters to sort through billions of pages. Also, these travel websites consumers want to talk to a person about their travel needs. Instead of typing in their needs into their computer and getting back generic suggestions, they would rather explain their needs to a person who will make recommendations and, most important, the reasons for them. The New York Times article said of the Forrester report: "This is a wake-up call for the industry. Customers are tired of spending two or three hours trying to find the airline or hotel or vacation package that meets their needs" (as cited in Murphy, 2007) www-staff.it.uts.edu.au Internet provides a powerful environment for the creation of virtual representations of tourism destinations allowing indirect experience that greatly surpasses the possibilities of traditional travel agents." However, social interaction with travel agents, their expertise and the possibility to save time on search can be of even higher importance. The authors suggest the best of both sides": the convenience of Internet should be combined with the convenience of a simplified decision making and collaborative booking from traditional travel agents.
Power Law Networks Phys. Rev. E, 6446135-46143,.
A www-staff.it.uts.edu.au Bogdanovych, H. Berger, C. Sierra and S. Simoff.(2006) Travel Agents vs. Online Booking: Tackling the Shortcomings of Nowadays Online Tourism Portals. In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Information Technologies in Tourism. Retrieved December 23, 2007 http://ispaces.ec3.at/papers/BOGDANOVYCH.EA_2006_travel-agents-vs.pdf
CNN Money. November 27, 2007
J.D. Power and Associates Reports: Declining Customer Satisfaction Throughout the Travel Industry Extends to Independent Travel Web Sites. Retrieved December 23, 2007 http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/LATU13927112007-1.htm
Fornell, C. (May 15, 2007) Customer Satisfaction Growth Slows, Many Companies Struggle to Keep Up. Latest ACSI report shows utilities and cell phones rising; restaurants, cable and airlines tumbling. Michigan Ross School of Business. Retrieved December 23, 2007 http://www.bus.umich.edu/NewsRoom/ArticleDisplay.asp?news_id=9936
Murphy, M. (November 8, 2007) President's Letter. What's Wrong with e-Commerce?
Modern Agent, Travel Pulse. Retrieved December 23, 2007 http://www.modernagent.com/Resources/Editorial.aspx?n=32465
