A Study to Compare Offline and Online Consumer Travel Booking Preferences

Travel and tourism are one of the fastest and largest growing industries worldwide that contributes a massive revenue of over 7.6 trillion USD in 2016 to the global economy. From 528 million in 2005 to 1.19 billion in 2015, the number of travelers continues to swell globally and is speculated to exceed 1.8 billion by 2030 (Global Tourism Industry – Statistics & Facts). According to a research, 36% of the consumers will make an unplanned trip if they are offered discounts. 41% of the consumers are willing to make a purchase after receiving a promotional/discount offer over email and 25% of the consumers will make a purchase after receiving an offer over SMS (Octane Research, 2015). When comparing with agricultural and manufacturing industry collectively, tourism is incessantly developing faster.

The constant development in the travel industry has shaped together various lobbying groups such as the World Travel and Tourism Council, which incorporates airlines, hotels, cruises and travel companies/agents among its members and pivot on tourism to a large number of destinations and countries (Cook et al, 2006). Information in the travel industry is a crucial factor in not only planning and booking but also during the travel and sometimes even after that. This is why tourism is one of the industries where the rapid change in the technology has had a great impact in the last twenty years (Crnojevac, Gugie & Karlovcan, 2010). Rapid development in the field of information technology has drastically changed the face of doing business in the tourism industry. The boom of internet and social media has well ingrained itself as the perfect tool for serving the clients. This availability of information first hand to the travelers allows them to have a visual of the travel products offered either through graphical images and video clips. In this age of digitalization, travelers have a wide array of choices, easy access to vast amount of information and thus leading them to take better and informed decisions (Rensburg, 2014).

While planning a trip the traveler begins planning by getting in touch with copious airlines, hotels, or tourist centers in search of flights, transfers, and accommodation. Travel agencies can make this process easier and comfortable giving the desired result. These agencies organize trips, by informing the customer about everything concerning the trip like the destination, hotels, best & comfortable means of transit (Cook et al, 2006). Travel today has become cheap, affordable and as per the liking of the customer, the number of travelers and their frequency of traveling in India and the world is increasing continuously. To take advantage of ease of booking and comparative pricing the consumers are turning towards the internet. Over 95% of the potential consumers search online before making a travel purchase to look at the best deals and prices available to them (Octane Research, 2015). Online Travel Agents (OTA) through World Wide Web provide a point of contact for customers who are searching for a suitable travel plan, which is then booked by the OTA (Lohmann & Schmucher, 2009). In recent times the travel websites have grown themselves to cater to every need of the travelers by offering them a complete experience through online hotel bookings, holiday packages, travel guides, air tickets, rail and bus tickets, and customized holiday packages for both the group and individual travelers. Attractive features like easy cancellation, personalized deals, ticket tracking and on-call customer service help in easing the journey of the traveler (Inc42, 2017).

The modern breed of traveler looks for interactive facilities, high-quality travel services and a variety of information on products that will assist them in decision making without taking too much of their time (Clemons, Hann & Hitt, 2002). Traveller’s perception to the quality of the online service provider is linked to credibility, reliability, and trust in the firm (Citrin, Sprott & Silverman, 2000) and this represents an integral aspect of the intangible nature of services (Smith, 2004). As travel products are heterogeneous in nature, offer greater differentiation and are high-involvement, thus internet provides an immense opportunity (Khare & Khare, 2010). OTA’s are efficacious and almost outperforms traditional agency because of the diverse advantages they possess. However, the opportunities in physical interaction with customers, selling products and services at stores have made the traditional agency preferable over the last decades (Syratt & Archer, 2003). Service provided by travel agents are valuable and relevant. And this value is created as a result of personalized service, expertise (experience, knowledge, and skills), established connections, access to deals and benefits which are not accessible to the public, as well as their ability to negotiate better prices take precedence. In addition to that, agencies are able to guarantee a safety net during the trips which are not available to the travelers if they do their own bookings.

Seller furthermore is in the position to acquire perks on traveler’s behalf, like upgraded hotel amenities and rooms, restaurant reservations, specialized tour guide, and access to otherwise exclusive events (Olmstead, 2012) (Kracht & Wang, 2010) (Weaver & Lawton, 2008). They can also customize the tour and experiences as per the requirement or the needs of the individual customer (Law, Leung & Wong, 2004). The meteoric growth of online travel agency shows the cogent competitiveness of the online agency against the traditional one, thus leading to question the survival of traditional travel agencies that have been threatened by the fast-growing online travel agency (Gao & Rajala, 2013). But on the contrary and according to the Euromonitor International Report by the IMF (International Monetary Fund), it predicts that in the coming years there is going to be a slow but increasing trend in offline travel and a declining trend in the online travel (Euromonitor International, 2012). It’s believed that a traditional offline travel agency is an expert in offering customers with tailor-made service products and reliable in regards to customers’ personal information pertaining to payment methods and sensitive information (Horner & Swarbrooke, 2008). If we were to look from this point of view, despite the current scenario of the world heading towards digitalization, today the consumers might want to book their holidays through offline mode. The traditional travel agents are successful in creating exemplified catalogs that showcase the noteworthy amount of information with jazzed up artistic photographs, user testimonials, maps and much more to create an environment of trust.