CONFIDENCE
Continued from Page 8
their agent was influential when
travel decisions were made, up from
46% in 2001.
When judging the trade’s influence
by segment, 66% of clients said their
agents were influential when hotel and
resort decisions were made, and 63%
said the same about air bookings.
In seven of the eight segments, all
except for rail, influence ratings were
higher than in 2008.
The Monitor in recent years has
chronicled the rapid increase of consumer search and booking activity
on the Internet, but the decline in
market share for traditional agents
appears to have leveled off. (See related story, Page 8.)
Among leisure travelers who
booked airline travel and a hotel
stay on at least one trip in the past
12 months, 28% said they shopped
with and bought from travel agents.
Further, they reported that they used
agents to buy 10% of leisure trips.
As for the next 12 months, 28% of
airline/hotel users said they planned
to use an agent, same as this year.
Research showed that older travelers were more likely than their
younger counterparts to book air
and hotels through a traditional
travel agency, and the same will be
true next year. Survey results showed
that 40% of mature travelers, meaning those age 63 and older, booked
with an agency in the past year and
that 42% of them expect to do the
same in the next year.
Among younger clientele, 25% of
baby boomers (age 44 to 62) and 23%
of Gen-Xers (age 30 to 43) who booked
air and hotel services did so from an
agency in the past 12 months, and 26%
of boomers expect to do the same in the
coming year. However, only 11% of the
Gen-Xers expect to use an agent in the
next year.
The Monitor compared profiles of
agency clients who buy leisure trips
with all leisure travelers and with the
broader adult population. It turns
out that married boomers making
between $50,000 and $100,000 are
predominant among all leisure travelers, regardless of where they buy
their travel.
Although some things are very
