A new report from Forrester Research Europe reveals a healthy outlook for the online travel industry in the UK - the market will see a boom in revenues from E929.8m (GBP592m) to E5.8bn (GBP3.7bn) by 2005.
While only 1.6 million UK internet users booked flights online in 2000, this figure will rapidly increase to 5.7 million in five years. The online flight sector alone will constitute 45 per cent of the total online travel industry in 2005.
According to the ‘The UK Online Travel Dogfight’ survey, just a few companies will weather the impending battle for the UK’s 22 million online travel customers.
One group that UK online travel companies should note is the ‘backpackers’. These people tend to use their computers or phones to find the best bargains for leisure holidays and 8 per cent of them reserve leisure holidays over the Web.
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