Half of holidays will be booked online by 2009
By Darren Cronian on Saturday, April 9th, 2005

By 2009, half of all holidays will be booked online, according to research by two of Britain’s principal travel companies. Thomson, the UK’s largest tour operator, said about 23 per cent of its sales were over the internet and the figure would rise to 50 per cent within four years.

DIY holidays are on the increase

Hat tip: Telegraph.

Update in 2008:

Since I wrote this post the internet has taken off to higher than expected levels – more consumers than ever are now booking their holiday online through tour operators like Thomson and Thomas Cook, and smaller independent travel agencies.

Over 20 million holidaymakers booked their own holiday (DIY Holiday) in the Summer of 2008, which shows that consumers want flexibility, independence and the price of the holiday is important to them, this figure is set to increase to over 27 million in 2009.


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2 responses to “Half of holidays will be booked online by 2009”

Darren Cronian | 9 April, 2005 at 11:44 am

I had to laugh at this article simply because all of a sudden the high street travel agents have realised that DIY holidays exist. ‘Do It Yourself’ type holidays have existed from the late 90’s .. come on guys wake up it’s now 2005!

Angela Bennett | 14 April, 2005 at 7:56 pm

DIY holidays are great, especially when you get used to the various websites and know where to look. We arrange all our holidays online - and have done for several years. I always check out the hotels by looking at a website on which other people have put their comments. I hope it’s OK to put the name on - I have no connection with it! http://www.tripadvisor.com It’s extremely helpful. We had 11 holidays abroad last year, at a total cost for flights and accommodation of well under £5,000 for the two of us. That’s an amount a lot of travel agents would charge for one trip!

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