NEW YORK Henry Harteveldt, senior analyst/Forrester Research and co-chair/eTravelWorld, released Forrester Research s latest statistics on frequent travel buyers during his keynote address at the eTravelWorld Conference held here.
Harteveldt noted that “the Web still doesn t meet all the needs of travelers,” and that on-line travel distributors need to improve their websites usability and customer service.
According to Forrester research, frequent business travelers (travelers that take more than four trips a year) are more likely to book travel reservations on large websites, like Travelocity, than infrequent business travelers. “Frequent business travelers buy where they want to buy,” he said.
In addition, 60% of leisure travelers that search travel on the Internet but don t book online, (lookers) state that they “feel more comfortable booking offline,” said Harteveldt. He noted that poor customer service might be one of the factors leading travelers to other distribution channels. Also, 40% of leisure travel lookers feel uncomfortable revealing personal information online. “If you ask for someone s date of birth, you need to explain why you want that information. Otherwise it looks like Big Brother ,” he said.
Harteveldt concluded his address by noting that the current economy “demands that you capture all the frequent travelers now.” Many on-line travel buyers have already established their own preferred websites and competing sites “need to work harder to attract them now.” (4/2/01) Diana M. Rodriguez