In February 2000, the Travel Industry Association of America released a survey study entitled "Travelers Turn to the Net - Market Soars" which pointed out that the number of people using the Internet to book airline tickets and hotel accommodations grew by 146 percent in 1999 (NUA, Online).
The survey, published by NUA Internet surveys (www.nua.ie) showed that among 1,200 US adults, there was a strong correlation between those who used the Internet and those who were frequent travelers. 53 percent of travelers use the Internet compared to 45 percent of US adults. Of those that purchased a travel item online in the last year, half, 8.2 million, were frequent fliers (NUA, Online).
The survey also showed that 16.5 million used the Internet to make reservations in 1999, in 1998 that figure was 6.7 million and in 1997 it was 5.4 million. Just over 35 million people used the Internet to research their travel plans and then subsequently bought tickets offline last year. 52.2 million use the Internet to plan their travel.
Of particular interest for this proposed project is the fact that the survey concluded that the typical online traveler is young, college-educated and in receipt of a salary in excess of $ 75,000. 51 percent buy from company sites-sites that sell directly from airlines and hotels, while 39 percent prefer to buy from portal sites such as Priceline.com, Travelocity and Expedia. 45 percent of those who purchased last year intend to make more purchases online this year (NUA, Online).
The report, "Travelers' Use of the Internet" is based on interviews with over 1,200 US adults. The results are largely consistent with a report released by Gartner Group earlier this year, which predicted that the value of the global travel industry market will increase, six fold by the end of next year.
The growth and development of the Internet as a source of procuring travel accommodations (airline tickets, hotels, cruises, to...