Brits are now largely online lookers and increasingly bookers.

Not such good news for Travel agents as a study from YouGov and Memonic found only 15% of British travellers now use travel agents to research their holidays yet 2/3rd of online Brits (67%) are now using the Internet to research, source and plan their holidays both in the UK and abroad. ABTA’s numbers show that Brits love their holidays. But the downturn has forced more staycation type activity. The average Brit took 3.2 holidays; two in the UK and 1.2 abroad! Despite the Coop who is running ads advising you to come to the Travel Agent and not waste time online – the punters are clearly not paying attention. The research found that 74% of online Brits that research holidays online are spending anywhere from at least two hours upwards researching each holiday online, with 20% spending 8 or more hours.

However old habits die hard – and nearly 50% actually printed their results and 33% used bookmarks. The use of paper is interesting as one of the primary tools of years gone by was Teletext which did not permit printing.
From the same study here are some interesting facts.
• 21% write down the information, while 29% copy and paste into a ‘Word’ document
• When sorting through information they collate, 34% print everything relevant out, while just under a third (31%) review their hand written notes
• 30% share information by hard copy; 60% share the information in person,
• Almost half (47%) of all GB adults online are interested in a tool which would save web content, make notes as they do their research and organise their holiday research. (sounds like the iPad could become a value proposition)
Of course Memonic has a vested interest in this research. As their spokesman stated: With 48% of online holiday researchers printing details rather than collating information on-line in one place no wonder we are seeing so much time being spent on a simple task. In contrast, Memonic is a free web based note-taking software offering web users the ability to capture information onto an online notebook to share with family and friends with no printer in sight and all details are available online on the slopes or at the airport via your mobile devices or Smartphone!”
Or better other regular tools. But still the information shows the need for info containers of easy use.

Cheers