Travel agencies popularity and loyalty levels measured
Thursday January 14, 2010
Several of Australia's largest travel agencies have been compared and assessed on their customer service and satisfaction levels by one of the nation's leading statistical analysis and market research companies.
According to the latest Roy Morgan Travel Agent Report, it seems that travel agency Flight Centre is the most popular travel agent for the year ended September 2009 with 10.0 per cent or 1.77 million of Australians using Flight Centre for a holiday or leisure trip in the last 12 months.
Wotif.com is the most popular online-only booking company with 7.1 per cent while Webjet and Lastminute.com make up the third and fourth positions with 3.2 per cent and 2.7 per cent respectively.
For the year ended September 2009, Wotif.com customers reported the highest loyalty with 77.8 per cent of Australians who used Wotif.com for a holiday or leisure trip in the last 12 months saying that they would consider using Wotif.com for their next holiday or leisure trip. Wotif.com customers are increasing over time with 6.6 per cent of Australians using Wotif.com in the year ending September 2008 compared, with the current level being 7.1 per cent.
Flight Centre has remained stable with figures remaining at 10.0 per cent for both the year ending September 2008 and September 2009.
Highest Popularity Figures:
- Flight Centre - 10.0 per cent
- Wotif.com.au - 7.1 per cent
- Webjet - 3.2 per cent
- Lastminute.com.au - 2.7 per cent
Highest Loyalty Figures:
- Wotif.com.au - 77.8 per cent
- Flight Centre - 76.8 per cent
- Webjet - 72.1 per cent
- Lastminute.com.au - 70.0 per cent
Jane Ianniello, International Director of Roy Morgan Research, commented that the differences between onlien travel agencies and physical stores may be evident, but that customers are still using both avenues when deciding on their travel plans.
"Flight Centre dominates the market and is one of the few ';bricks-and-mortar' travel agents to maintain its customer base over the past four years against the rapid growth of online-only travel agents such as Wotif.com, Webjet and Lastminute.com. Flight Centre offers traditional shop front outlets but also takes telephone and website bookings.
"Although 50 per cent of Australians book at least part of their overseas holidays in person compared to 13 per cent for domestic trips, 49 per cent now book some portion via internet websites, and this percentage is increasing." Ms Ianniello stated in a release commenting on the results.
"It will be interesting to see whether Flight Centre can maintain its market share given the trend towards internet bookings."
