John L. has been struggling to keep his travel agency alive for the past two years. He is one of the thousands of travel agents who lose a significant number of customers to the Internet every year. “We cannot beat their prices; I have to pay rent, salaries and many other operational costs of a retailer,” said John.

As a result of the Internet threat, many travel agencies in Greece may have to shut down. 

John’s agency, Eclipse Travel Consulting, is showing a constant decrease in profits and draws from a pool of potential customers that is small compared to that of Internet operators. “They target the million travelers that book through the Internet; I only target my area for new clients,” he said.  

The Internet is the most popular method of booking business travel, according to research by Barclaycard Business. The research shows that 53 percent of business travelers have purchased business travel online during the past 12 months. 

John can see the trend coming from Australia. His father, Chris, a travel agent for over four decades in Sydney, has been beaten back by the Internet. “I had to leave the ocean view downtown office and move back to Dulwich Hill, the place I took my first steps as a travel agent,” said Chris. 

A 2010 Jigsaw Research-Google Travel Study cited in the Brisbane Times in January suggests that, however they are reserved, 77 percent of all trips booked in Australia are at least reserached online. “Whether we like it or not, this is the future of business and leisure traveling,” said Chris, responding to the study. “We have to adjust, and maybe consider it as a business opportunity.” 

There are more than 3,000 licensed travel agencies operating in Australia. While many of them are doing some online sales, traditional sales remain the mainstay for most, and the traditional approach does hold some advantages over Internet travel service. “Some products are still difficult to book online,” explained Chris. “And there are still travelers who prefer to have the advice and back-up of a travel agent - or simply don't have the confidence to make an Internet booking.” Those factors, said Chris, have kept him in business. 

In Greece, Internet penetration in 2009 was 46 percent, nearly four times what it was in 2000, according to figures published at www.internetworldstats.com. Given Internet penetration of 80 percent in Australia, John says Australia’s experience points to the future of the travel industry of Greece. And the inevitable risks that face Greek travel agents who want to survive. “It is a significant investment to go online,” explained John. “There are thousands of Web sites out there that offer travel services. A new Web site would require heavy advertising to stand out.”  

Despite the large investment, John is considering online sales. “When we launched our site, it was just informative,” he said. “Now we are using it to promote our new travel suggestions, but there is still a lot of work to be done to get to the point of selling online.” 

A complete Web site for selling travel services costs about 10,000 euros, he said. “You need a Web page that can support the applications, which costs about 5,000. The Amadeus application that costs about 3,000 and the hotel operators’ applications that cost about 2,000 euros,” says John. “In our industry, one would need about 200 thousand euros per year to appear in the first pages of Google.”

The information available to consumers through online searches has also created unfair misconceptions about travel agencies, who only recently got permission to offer customers promotional rates on air fares. “We weren’t able to book these tickets through our systems,” said John. “And that created mistrust on the part of our customers. The customer doesn’t know – and often doesn’t care – how the industry works. All he wants is the best available fare. When we quote fares much higher than the airline, they think we are trying to take advantage of them. Now this has changed, but the perception it has created, I don’t know when that will.” 

For some online shoppers, the advantages of the Internet outweigh occasional hitches in transactions. Dimitris K. booked a ticket to Munich online recently, but didn’t receive an e-mail confirmation. “I called the airline and they told me I don’t have a reservation even though there was a charge on my credit card,” he said. It took him more than five phone calls to sort it out. “Still, I would book the ticket online,” he said. “I like to be the one that does the searching rather than have someone else do it for me. I don’t think a travel agent will put half the effort I put in to planning my trip and, through the Internet, I am now able to do so.” 

Increasingly more people seem to think the way Dimitris does. Every day, more people learn to use the Internet. Going online seems the only salvation for John and many other travel agents. Traditional travel agents may soon live only in the stories of Chris, sitting on the porch with his grandchildren, on a cool Australian summer evening.