Travel agents in Asia Pacific yet to take online advantage: Travelport survey

Travelport has revealed findings from its annual Asia Pacific Retail Travel Benchmarking Survey, which looks at issues affecting travel agents in ten Asia Pacific countries. One significant finding revealed that the majority of retail agents were yet to take full advantage of an online presence, with online bookings comprising just ten per cent of travel agents’ total reservations. The countries with the highest agency online interface came from Malaysia (78 per cent), China (70 per cent) and India (60 per cent) while the Philippines (30 per cent) and Indonesia (31 per cent) had the least online interaction with customers.

Brad Holman, President and Managing Director, Travelport GDS – Asia Pacific, commented, “Although online booking numbers were still quite limited compared with other channels, this could be due to the fact that less than half of the agents polled had online booking facilities.”

Some of the other findings of the survey include:

• Airline ticket sales remain the major source of income, making up 48 per cent of revenue. Thailand (63 per cent) and the Philippines (56 per cent) were the highest markets.