Why a Good Website is Crucial for any Travel Agent

Holidaymakers are booking holidays online

Published 29 February 2012 in Featured Articles

Recent research by TravelSupermarket found two thirds of UK holidaymakers planned to book their main 2012 holiday online.*

The study also discovered that around just 1 in 10 people will use a traditional High Street travel agent to book their big holiday this year.

These figures only serve to demonstrate how important it is for a travel agent of any size to have a good website.

What travel agency business can afford to ignore such a large share of the market?

Below are some of the main reasons why a good website is so crucial for any travel agent in the digital age.

• Attract bookings at any time of day or night

It’s not practical to have a physical travel agent shop open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Of course with a website this is possible and it gives people the freedom to book their holidays whenever suits
them best.

If you’re an independent travel agent without a website, you’re narrowing your market considerably. As technology use continues to grow, any travel agency business without a website will find things
increasingly difficult.

People have become used to making high value purchases over the internet, and holidays are no different.

• To compete

Even if you’re a travel agent operating within a very niche market, the chances are you’ll still have competitors.

Pitting your offline travel agency business against one that has a website will be a tough battle to win. For example, you may be open eight hours a day as opposed to 24, which will clearly have an
impact on your ability to sell as many holidays.

Competing on a level playing field in the travel sector is hard enough. A good website is therefore a necessity just to put your travel agency business on an even keel with the others.

• To reduce overheads

Running a travel agency branch or chain of branches is not cheap. By switching your operations online, you can reduce your overheads significantly.

There’s no rent to pay, you can cut staff costs, heating, lighting and business rate bills too. There will still be costs such as website design (including an online booking facility), processing card payments,
any membership fees, search engine optimisation and more. However, after the initial outlay on these, your day-to-day operating costs will be significantly lower.

*source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2095356/Travel-agents-lose-10-Britons-books-holiday-shop.html

Author Bio: Freedom Travel Group provides professional and affordable travel agency franchises in the UK. Visit http://www.freedomtravelgroup.co.uk/ to learn more about their website packages for franchisees.

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