A SURVEY commissioned by Going Places has shown that older generation are more likely to book holidays on the Internet than the young.
More holidaymakers over 65 registered a preference for the Internet than 18-24 year olds (see table, right).
But the age group that most preferred surfing the Internet to book a holiday was the 45-64 year-olds – 64 of this group registered that preference.
However, the survey showed the majority of customers buying holidays stillprefer the personal touch, booking via a travel agent rather than over the Internet.
The Gallup poll phone interviewed 1,055 randomly selected people on their holiday booking preferences. Some 821 interviewees (78%) said they still liked talking to a travel agent face to face when choosing and buying a holiday rather than visiting an Internet site for information and purchase.
The survey found 174 people said they preferred booking over the Internet, with five not sure and one refusing to answer.
Going Places marketing and business development director Francesca Ecsery-Merrens said the company would use the results to monitor how customers used the Internet but added that the company had no immediate plans for on-line development.
She said: “There’s a lot of hype about the Internet but there hasn’t been much marketing action or commercial benefit from it yet. We are watching what happens and if things start moving, we have a formula to get moving quickly and jump on the bandwagon.”