ON-LINE sales of travel products in Europe will top £1bn in 2002, according to a market analysis firm.
Datamonitor research reveals that the travel industry is one of the fastest growing sectors for on-line sales in Europe and that the 1997 on-line travel sales figure of just £4.7m is set to explode to £1.05bn as sellers realise transactional costs of bookings made on the Internet can be 10-times lower than call centres.
The research specialist claimed that travel companies are now racing to get on-line and are right to do so as significant competitive advantages from having a site, such as a worldwide presence, are now emerging.
Fear, the research says, was the prime motivator for developing on-line sites initially as established travel companies saw new operators such as a2btravel enjoy successful starts.
The study reveals that although many consumers will never move their buying habits from the high street, the success of Teletext had created a culture where people were not frightened to book late-availability holidays. In turn, this would mean consumers were no strangers to the remote buying of the Internet.
The popularity of buying travel on the Internet will be fuelled by increasingly sophisticated Web sites providing links to a whole host of interconnected sites, for example, virtual tours, photo galleries and tourist offices.
Datamonitor said a large contribution to that £1bn figure will come from sales from interactive TV. The company estimates that this distribution channel will outsell PC-based Internet sales by 2003.
Its research also showed that although products such as flights are currently the most popular products on-line, package holidays are set to be the next big success story. They will, however, be marketed more successfully through interactive TV than PC-based Internet due to its mass-market reach.