High street travel agents have been warned to change - or become extinct - as fewer holidaymakers opt to use their services for booking annual trips abroad. Up to 50% of independent holidaymakers, those who book hotels, flights and other arrangements separately, are snubbing high street travel agents and booking breaks on the internet or via phone calls to tour operators.

The Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) yesterday said operators must begin to specialise in areas like cruises or adventure holidays if they are to survive. Although around 80% of us still use high-street operators for package deals, this too is changing with more and more holidaymakers booking packages on the internet or over the phone.

Since 1989 the number of high street travel agents has fallen in the UK by 50%, even though the holiday market has grown. Abta spokesman Sean Tipton said agents must now do more than simply tell their customers to flick through some brochures and find something they like if they are to survive.

“Travel agents have to be more professional and they’ve really got to know their products and justify their existence to the public,” he said. “And that’s not just by offering good deals, but also by showing they know more about the country than any member of the public who comes in.

“It’s not good enough now to give people some brochures and tell them to look through and come back when they find something they are happy with. “Why do you go to a solicitor? Because they know something you don’t. Travel agents have to show the public they know something they don’t.”

Mr Tipton said travel agents would survive by simply switching to operating on the internet and those who specialise would survive on the high street. “We don’t have as many high street travel agents now because people are phoning them up instead of walking in off the street.

“The ones who specialise in certain areas, like cruise ships, are the ones that will survive - that is the formula for survival.” Traveland, which has offices in Porthcawl and Swansea, switched from being a general high street travel agent to specialising in cruises around 20 years ago.

Managing director Phillip George said in that time his firm had grown considerably and now employed 25 staff. “We perceived that we had to specialise or go down a business house route, booking travel arrangements for companies.

“We didn’t think that was a good route and we decided to go for cruises. It proved to be the right way for us.” Mr George said the days when high street travel agents could expect to survive by people walking in off the street and booking two weeks in Benidorm were long gone.

“People can do it themselves now,” he said. “They can book their flights on BMIbaby and their hotels and just go.” Until around two years ago Lisa Kettle and husband Simon used high street travel agents for their annual holidays.

But Lisa, 27, said a combination of busy working lives and the savings to be had from independent bookings means they now prefer the DIY option. Mrs Kettle, who works in public relations in North Wales, recently spent three weeks in Thailand with her husband on a trip that, with spending money included, cost them just £2,000 after booking on the internet.

“We spent three weeks there and that included all our flights and accommodation,” she said. “We booked flights out there over the internet and internal flights to Chang Mai and Vietnam while we were there for as little as £50 each.

“We booked a hotel in Bangkok over the internet so we had a base when we first arrived and then found plush hotels for £25 a night for two people. Had we booked through a travel agent the holiday would have cost us three times as much.”

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