OTAs and aggregators are attempting to present a digitised version of the work of travel agents, but are falling short. Research has revealed that these platforms are not the one-stop shop they appear to be.
Expedia Group’s recently released report, The Path to Purchase, found that the average traveller viewed 141 pages of travel content in the 45 days leading up to booking a trip. This number was found to be as many as 277 pages of travel content for some countries.
The research shows that these pages span a variety of website categories. Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) made up the majority of these pages. It was found that travellers visited multiple OTAs as well as search engines, social media, airline direct websites, meta travel, hotel, destination, and car-rental sites as well as financial services sites.
The path to purchase, according to Expedia, is made up of stages. The first stage is the inspiration stage when travellers start thinking about a trip. This progresses to the research phase where travellers browse and narrow their options. Travellers then progress to the planning stage, and then the booking stage where options are finalised. The last phase is the post-purchase phase, the time between booking and taking a trip.
Travellers visit different platforms, depending on the stage they are at, with social media being the most popular during the inspiration stage, and OTAs and direct airline websites being most popular in the planning and booking stages.
While OTAs attempt to provide a one-stop solution to shorten and simplify this process, data from the report shows that it is not the case, as travellers continue to research far beyond just one OTA.
Travel News spoke to Mladen Lukic, MD of Travel Counsellors South Africa, on the subject of OTAs aiming to replace the role of traditional travel agents.
“If you look at digital platforms, they are trying to codify travel agent work. They are trying to provide a digital version of what they think an agent does,” he said.
Lukic said this path to purchase was unavoidable. Travellers want to be involved in their own research and make their own decisions. The role of travel agents is to be part of this process.
“This is why we don’t call our agents travel agents, they are travel counsellors,” he said.
“Agents are a trusted source of information. If we just opened a book and said: ‘Here is the information. Come back when you’re ready to book’ then we wouldn’t have a job. Agents provide a sufficient information narrative while customers are on this discovery process.”