December 20 2006

Three quarters of holidays researched or booked online

The latest study of holiday booking habits has shown that only 7% of internet users research and book holidays from high street travel agents - no great surprise there. What is odd though is that while a beach holiday is the most common type of holiday booked online, activity holidays are more popular on the high street.

Nine per cent of internet users book their holidays in the high street once they have researched the destination online, 17% research online then make a telephone booking and 55% research and book online. The survey was conducted on behalf of marketing agency Harvest Digital and advertising network Adviva. 28% of people aged 55 and over booked their holiday a month or less before departure, compared with 25% of under 24s and 18% of internet users overall.

With three quarters of holidays either researched or booked online, "the travel industry provides a wonderful reminder, if anyone still needed one, of how integral the internet has become in the life of today's consumer," said Alex Burmaster, European Internet Analyst at Nielsen//NetRatings.

Emma Herrod