40% of consumers now book holidays online, according to research by Kayak.co.uk

40% of consumers now book holidays online, according to research by Kayak.co.uk

Nearly half of people say they have not visited a travel agent

More than a third of people (40%) now book holidays online in the UK, new research reveals.

As a result, nearly half of people (47%) say they have not visited a travel agent.

And more than three quarters of British holidaymakers (76%) say how they travel has changed in at least one way in the past decade.

The results appear in a study into holiday changes since 2009 by travel search engine Kayak.co.uk.

Almost a third (30%) do more research for their holidays than they did a decade ago thanks to online review websites.

This is likely linked to the increase in booking online. Consumers previously relied on the experts to share destination information, but now they are booking themselves and being our own travel agents, according to Kayak,

More than 20% now book different holiday components separately rather than be set in the contraints of a package.

The study of 1,007 people found that 21% try more local food when they go away than they did a decade ago.

One in five (19%) now change their holiday money before they go away to get better rates, while a similar proportion (18%) now get travel insurance for each holiday, something they did not do ten years ago.

UK travellers are getting a little more adventurous with 11% no longer trying to find a British pub when on holiday and 9% not worried about finding somewhere that serves British food.

Company EMEA senior director Sophie Gough said: “Kayak was founded 15 years ago and whilst it may not seem as if loads has changed in that time, the research is showing some significant shifts in trends.

“The biggest change is helping travellers find the right destination, information and prices online for their trip.

“In the last ten years almost half of British travellers have moved online.

“With this shift, we also see travellers booking each component of their trip separately and doing far more research on a destination with all the information they have available to them.

“Whilst in the past, some travellers may have preferred the reassurance of booking through a resource such as a travel agent, most people find that once they put themselves in control, they actually feel more reassured and can travel with even more confidence than before.”