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Online guides replacing travel agents?
For many internet buyers, it’s a simple process. Browse, click, buy. But some sites are increasingly seeing new opportunities in social media or the recommendation of friends.
Long-established companies such as Expedia are "hoping to enlist friends and family via social networks to cheaply replicate individual tailored services travel agents once provided," writes Bloomberg, among other sites noting the trend.
The idea is that someone has tried a trip and testifies that it was comfortable and worthwhile.
"Travel agencies used to be such a personalized experience," said Joe Megibow, vice president of the US unit of Expedia, the largest travel website.
Nearly 118 million people in the US will research travel online in 2012, up from 114.5 million last year, with more than 98 million making bookings, forecasts researcher EMarketer.
Online travel sales in the US are expected to grow 11 percent this year, to $119.2 billion, from $107.4 billion, the firm says.
A variety of new companies are taking a page from Expedia to let users compare social networks.
"The newcomers operate on the assumption that tasks such as unearthing the best coffee bar in San Francisco can’t be entrusted to mere guidebooks," said Bloomberg.
Sites operate in a similar manner. For example, first-timers visitors sign in and are asked to select a destination. They site combs data screens for relatives and friends to compile a list of recommended hotels, attractions and restaurants.
Travel agents predictably say these impersonal searches don’t provide their style of customized service.
An agent "gets to know you, and they take it to the next level and suggest things based on knowing you," said Ryan McGredy, owner of a San Francisco agency.
There’s some evidence social networks spur travel sales, Bloomberg says.
A 2011 study by Expedia found that people who visited a company’s Facebook page were more likely to purchase from that seller than those who visited only the company’s site.
Facebook linked 15.2 million visitors to hotel websites in 2010, a 35 percent jump from the prior year, according to a 2011 study by travel researcher PhoCusWright.
Some studies show a higher conversion rate of travel buyers who use these types of services.
By David Wilkening
David
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