Increase in the numbers who are now making holiday purchases online.
The number of British travel insurance policyholders who are now shopping online for their holiday as opposed to taking the more traditional face-to-face route in a travel agents branch is on the increase, as people see the benefits of customising and comparing.
According to TUI travel, which has had to close a number of its branches lately as a reaction to a reduced footfall in its physical branches, this could be a benchmark for the future as customers continually see the digital option as the preferable way to go.
The travel agency said that sales through its website now accounted for 40 per cent of the total number of holidays sold to customers, whilst those who were buying holidays in their stores only made up 38 per cent of all its revenue.
Nick Longman, distribution director with TUI, said that although this may well be the way the market continually moves over the next few years, TUI had confidence that its physical branches will continue to do well.
"There is no doubt we will see online growing, but travel agents will remain a very important sales outlet for us," he added.
Customers continually favour the online option when they are shopping for holidays because of the fact that they can customise their holidays more freely, whilst also making sure that they can search for the best priced holidays free of hassle.
However, the travel agencies across the UK should not be too disheartened, as their situation is one mirrored across the country, blamed mainly on the economic downturn. Recent figures released by the British Retail Consortium said that the number of people who were shopping on high streets had reduced by 0.7 per cent in November.
By Anne Jones
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