Survey indicates most popular travel agents for Australians

Australia & N.Zealand

Flight Centre is the most popular travel agent amongst Australians holidaymakers with 14% using it in the last 12 months. Other often used travel agents are: Blue Holidays (5%), Qantas Holidays (4%) and…

Flight Centre is the most popular travel agent amongst Australians holidaymakers with 14% using it in the last 12 months. Other often used travel agents are: Blue Holidays (5%), Qantas Holidays (4%) and Harvey World Travel (4%). Wotif.com (6%) is the most popular online-only booking company, followed by Webjet (2%) and Lastminute.com (2%), according to the latest Roy Morgan Research Single Source data.

Travel agents remain the main channel for booking overseas holidays, despite an increasing number of Australians booking direct with airlines and accommodation providers. Three-quarters (73%) of Australians book overseas holidays through a travel agent with one-quarter (25%) booking direct through an airline.

click image to enlarge

Travel agents are especially popular for long-haul destinations such as Europe (82% use an agent), but less so for short-haul destinations such as New Zealand (56% use an agent).

For domestic holidays, most Australians either don`t bother booking or book their own flights and accommodation. Only 11% used a travel agent, and 6% an online-only booking service such as Wotif.com or Webjet.

Jane Ianniello, Roy Morgan Research International Director of Tourism, Travel & Leisure, says: Despite Australians increasingly using the Internet to book their holidays directly or through an online-only booking company, travel agents clearly have an important role to play when booking holidays, especially to long-haul overseas destinations.

When booking a holiday through a travel agent, most people prefer to book in person (72%), with 23% booking over the phone and 14% via Internet. As travel agents develop and promote their online booking facilities in response to the proliferation of online-only booking services such as Wotif.com and Webjet, the use of the Internet as a booking channel will most likely increase in the coming years.

click image to enlarge

Tourists who use an online-only booking company such as Wotif.com or Webjet tend to be younger than those using a travel agent. Almost three-quarters (74%) of tourists using an online-only company are under 50 years of age, while almost all (96%) are under 65.

click image to enlarge

Tourists who book through an online-only booking company also tend to have a higher socioeconomic status than those booking through a travel agent, with 45% being from the AB quintile, compared to 27% for travel agents (the AB quintile comprises the top 20% of the Australian population 14 years or older in terms of socioeconomic status – the socioeconomic status of a respondent is derived from their education, income and occupation).

click image to enlarge