When it comes to choosing a holiday destination many of us flick through the enticing images in a glossy holiday brochure.
However these printed country guides could soon be leaving travel agents shelves according to Europe’s largest tour operator boss.
There has been an increase in travellers using mobile devices such as tablet and phones to look for trips online. This means within the next five years the holiday brochure could soon disappear.
Nick Longman, the distribution and online director as Tui Travel, revealed that he was in no doubt that travel companies could soon become completely brochure free.
His prediction followed Google’s latest data – which shown the Internet use on mobile devices growing 131 per cent year-on-year. Something, which has been driven by the high volumes on tablet devices, and for travel queries now account for 28 per cent.
Mr Longman said: “Brochures are an interesting debate. My challenge is the business is to think about at what point do we need zero brochures. There is going to be a point where we need to stop producing brochures and I think it will come within the next five years”.
According to Google data, tablet device queries surged after Christmas, and in one week alone queries were up by 23 per cent.
Robin Frewer, the director of travel at Google said: “It’s important businesses understand their customers and that their experience is seamless regardless of what device they are using.
“We have seen strong growth in online sales this year. We have seen traffic up about 15 per cent since the turn of year and conversion roughly the same”.
However Matt Rooke, Kuoni’s ebusiness and publishing vice president told TravelMail: “It goes without saying that the internet is predominantly the quickest way for customers to book their lifestyle choices at convenient times to suit them.
“Due to the nature of some of Kuoni’s holidays, customers tend to benefit from using a brochure to guide them. Looking to the future, brochure style is evolving to meet customer needs, with a more glossy, magazine style”.
Article by Charlotte Greenhalgh
