E-tourism in England a strategy .pdf

It also indicates the reasons cited by holidaymakers with Internet access who did not book
over the Internet for their decision:
• Preference for face to face advice (18%)
• Lack of Internet access at the time (16%)
• Worries about security (14%)
• Lack of convenience (10%)
• Access to better bargains elsewhere (10%)
According to NetValue (www.netvalue.com), Lastminute.com was the most popular travel
and tourism site in February 2002 with 679,000 unique visitors, up from 628,000 in
September 2001.
Jupiter Communications indicates that UK male and female Internet users have different
preferences in term of travel sites: women prefer sites offering flights only such as
Cheapflights.com, EasyJet.com and Ryanair.com while men do not have a preference
between different types of travel sites.
2.4 The impact of Internet use on traditional channels
A recent survey in the UK by MORI shows the way in which the Internet is affecting the use
of traditional channels of marketing within the UK market. In March 2001, the Internet and
brochures were used in similar proportions, as sources of information for booking holidays
or other forms of travel, by Internet using travellers (Figure 9). In a similar survey in May
2000, when interviewees were asked which source provided the most complete
information, the Internet was rated much more highly than brochures or any other source –
see Figure 10.
Brochures 51%
Internet 50%
Travel Agent 47%
Friends/Relatives/Colleagues 29%
Teletext 24%
Guide Books 16%
National Press 16%
Magazines 12%
TV Travel Programmes 11%
Figure 9: Use of different sources of information for booking
decisions by UK Internet users
[Source: Results from theE-Travel Tracker Survey from www.scotexchange.net,
March 2001. Base: all who use the Internet (605) March 2001]
41/44 A strategy for modernising English tourism through e-business – July 2002