Knowing the customer is the key to success
Online bookers are most likely to be people in the higher social groups, who travel often and buy independent trips.
Research company TripVision studied the behaviour of consumers to find out why they use the different booking channels.
Managing director David Jones split holidaymakers into five groups, depending upon how they felt about using travel agents and the internet.
The “homebodies” prefer to stay close to home, holiday in England and travel by car. They are very reliant on high street travel agents.
Those from the “golden years” are older and like travelling, but generally are technophobes and, again, are very reliant on retailers.
The “conformists” follow the pack and use a broad spread of channels to book holidays while “explorers” like new things in travel and technology and do not want people to organise them. They use the Internet to book holidays and only use shops to browse for brochures.
Finally, the “spenders” have the latest gadgets, are very materialistic and like the famous brands. They use the Internet continuously but, curiously, also utilise high street travel agents because they are busy and want to delegate jobs. They will pay extra for service.
Jones claimed this type of research could help agents better understand their customers and enable them to sell relevant products.
He claimed the study showed 600,000 people, many from high socio-economic groups, were interested in going to Germany for the World Cup, and agents with this knowledge could sell many relevant trips this summer.
Report by Jeremy Skidmore (www.jeremyskidmore.com)
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