TO SURVIVE in an increasingly digitised world, travel agencies must ensure their web platforms are straightfoward, personal and mobile-friendly, said Alan Gertner, industry manager, online agencies, Google.
Sharing the results of Google’s study of 11,000 travellers across 11 Asia-Pacific countries that was conducted in July, he found that travellers wanted an efficient way of dealing with travel online.
While 83 per cent, or eight in 10 travellers, use online to plan hotel stays, 14 per cent were overwhelmed by the amount of information on the web.
“(Booking or purchasing travel) online is not a simple process for them. The future of travel online needs to be simpler and more unified,” Gertner said.
Furthermore, the customer still wants to feel some form of service during the transaction, with 26 per cent saying they want personal travel consultancy.
Explaining the result, Gertner said: “Customers don’t want to go onto an OTA website or airline website and just go and book. They want to feel like a unique customer.”
He pointed to the finding that 62 per cent of respondents want to be recognised as a returning customer while 24 per cent have booked through a personal visit to an offline travel agency in the last 12 months.
“We’re clearly not offering a personal or unique enough experience online,” Gertner commented.
Unsurprisingly, 71 per cent of travellers said they consider personal recommendations as very important, something TripAdvisor “has taken into account”, he said.
At the same time, Gertner also said responses indicated that mobile is “starting to be the next frontier”.
Thirty-nine per cent of those polled use mobile devices to plan their holiday stays, while 59 per cent want the freedom to book “wherever, whenever”.
