The advantages of booking online - Il Sole 24 ORE

How much can you save by booking your holidays online, compared to the traditional agency? There are no precise estimates, also because the sector is wide and travel is more and more the driving force of e-commerce: online purchases are the lion's share, with 43% dedicated to airline tickets, trains and hotels.Among the most popular sites there are eDreams, Lastminute, Expedia, Volagratis.it and TripAdvisor. Operators claim business is booming. "The advice is to check availability daily - explains Roberto Riccio, general manager of Opodo Italia, an online agency set up by nine airlines, including Alitalia and controlled by the IT services company for tourism Amadeus - offers can be uploaded immediately to the databases and the advantage of technology is the immediate display".

Online travel agencies have access to privileged fares throughout the supply chain: "There are flight offers that can only be sold on the web - Riccio continues - that sometimes lower 40% fares. For example the one to New Dehli by British Airways: today the ticket costs 700 euros, in three days 438. Even hotels apply web rates to online groups. Sometimes we promise a full refund if the customer finds a better rate. Here the saving is around 20% maximum. Car rentals dedicate ad hoc promotions, in particular periods, up to 70% on the rate charged in the office. For packages, working mainly on unsold and last minute, the discount can reach 50% with a 2 for 1 formula".

At the end of June, bookings were up 46% on 2007 (+50% for hotels and flights, +64% insurance, a third for tours). July at mid-month recorded +70% in sales.
"In the current season, many traditional tour operators have not sold well - claims Riccio - and there is good availability of packages. Some have already begun to reduce. I foresee attractive offers as a result of the economic contingency: in order to sell you lower the rates, against the traditional policy of favoring those who book in advance.

He adds: "The biggest reductions will be on all-inclusive, especially after August, less on flights. Even for cruises, which at the beginning of the season seemed to be far from the crisis, some operators will sell in August at prices usually reserved for the period September-October.
"We estimate to travel this summer about 30 thousand passengers with all-inclusive packages - explain from Tui.it - and as many are the buyers of flights. The average receipt is 1,400 euros, the most sold are the Italian seaside resorts (Puglia, Calabria and Sardinia) then Greece and the Red Sea".
On flights is applied a commission of 6 euros (traditional agencies apply fees even five times higher, compared to the advice they offer). Among the advantages, the possibility of booking online at any time: evenings, nights and holidays, when the physical agencies are closed, and the choice (on Tui.it, as for other operators, the packages are about one hundred thousand).

Statistics from the TripAdvisor site speak of 22,977,800 users from 190 countries in the last week. Since January, about 250 thousand travelers have relied on Lastminute.com (45% for flights). Remarkable growth of ferries, online since July 2, which have already reached the shares of car rental. In the top ten of flight bookings on Volagratis, in the first places are Catania and Palermo (respectively +6 and +10% from Milan), despite the slightly increasing prices.
"This year there is a strong trend towards Sardinia - explain from the company - thanks to the entry of some low cost airlines and falling prices." Follow Naples, Ibiza and Paris. Increases, in general, the preference for low cost flights (from 62 to 68%) compared to scheduled airlines. July-August bookings are up 47%, with approximately 60,000 customers.
With one piece of advice: "We recommend that you book as far in advance as possible (60-90 days) and consider the possibility of cancellation insurance," concludes the company.