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HSMAI Europe: News syndicate:

"In 2003, 45% of online travel buyers purchased all of their travel online, according to The PhoCusWright Consumer Travel Trends Survey Sixth Edition, a recently released tracking report that annually documents online shopping and purchasing behavior. In total, 35 million Americans bought travel online in 2003, up 17% from 2002. Yet online travel buyers are divided as to which type of site ultimately gets the sale -- supplier or online travel agency.
Online travel agencies are feeling the heat from the supplier channel. Online travelers are now almost as likely to purchase travel from a supplier (online and offline) as an online agency. In fact, The PhoCusWright Consumer Travel Trends Survey Sixth Edition finds that nearly two-thirds of 'online travelers' buy personal travel from either online travel agency or supplier Web sites. And, the majority of online travelers usually check at least one online agency site (88%) and one supplier site (73%) before purchasing airline tickets online.

Price parity between online and offline channels and erratic content availability across Web sites are encouraging online shoppers to use multiple channels for comparison shopping and purchasing. In addition, half of all online travelers continue to shop online but purchase offline. Together, these underscore the slower growth pace of the Internet as an exclusive purchase channel due to the increased complexity of online travel offerings, consumers' use of offline support, and supplier success in nurturing consumer-direct relationships in the leisure segment."