Online travel agencies still making money in today's travel market {Gadling}

Dec 7th 2009 10:37PM Your thoughts are quite interesting, John. I wonder if the same can be said in Asia Pacific. Many people in Asia are still quite comfortable with their personal relationships with traditional Travel Agents. I think is due to 3 reasons. 1) People in Asia are still wary of Credit Card fraud. On the other hand, with the inception of Air Asia strategy of offering low fares only through online channels leave customers no choice which has indirectly helped the online space. 2) Some people in Asia still prefer a personal touch provided by their traditional Travel Agent and 3) Internet or broadband stability is still questionable in some countries in Asia.

What is interesting to find out is what people are actually lookng for in an Online Travel Agency? What is obvious is that price plays a major role in customers choice for purchase. There are not many Online Travel Agencies offer other products other than Air, Hotel, Car Rental and Insurance. Therefore, this limits potential customers to only purchase these products. Maybe there are other issues why some are still sceptical about the online travel space....... An interesting deliberation.