Online evolution

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'Travel agencies without specialist knowledge will disappear.' - Oliver Fasching, distribution development manager, Jumeirah Group.

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'We have to look at all ways of distributing our product.' - Kirsten Spence, web operations manager, the Jumeirah Group.

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'The level of industry and destination knowledge that the travel agents have is woeful.' - Nazar Musa, managing director, Holiday Autos.

How real a threat to travel agents is the advent of internet-based bookings and online distribution? Arabian Travel News staged a roundtable for industry heavyweights in a bid to get some answers.

The furore over online distribution and its potential to marginalise the more traditional booking routes offered by most travel agencies in this region is gaining pace.

ATN took the opportunity to gather high-ranking industry experts and decision makers at a roundtable hosted by Jumeirah Emirates Towers to get to the bottom of this thorny issue. The first point agreed by all attendees was that internet usage was on the rise.

"It might have been slower to develop in this region, but it's certainly a reality," said Hilton Hotels regional director of sales and marketing Guy Epsom. "For example I think at the moment in the US, 73.6% of the nation uses the internet compared to the Middle East's 23.3%, but it's growing all the time and we need to be aware of that growth and its implications."

Nazar Musa, managing director of Holiday Autos was even more emphatic, claiming there was a "definite trend" towards online booking, but added: "There will always be an offline demographic too."

Alarmingly for travel agencies, Carla Sfeir, director of revenue at Raffles Dubai revealed that 10% of the hotel's bookings were generated online and that the relatively new property already allocated 25% of its marketing budget to online promotions.

Oliver Fasching, the distribution development manager for Jumeirah Group, reminded panel members that while online distribution was a "present reality", it had by no means reached its potential.

"Online distribution is having an effect right now," he said. "The Middle East and Asia Pacific regions are still growing in this sense of course, but it is impossible to ignore the impact on booking trends the internet has.

"Currently eighty-five percent of travellers worldwide make reservations online and when this region catches up, it is going to be huge."

Fasching also commented that advertising online was more measurable than the traditional methods.

"If you have the correct tools you can track the specifics of an online campaign," he said.

"Moving online to advertise and promote you can measure exactly how much the campaign costs and how many bookings you received directly as a result. It can give you a much clearer picture of what you receive for your investment than if you tried it with other methods."

Kirsten Spence, web operations manager for Jumeirah Group, took a more measured approach.

"Online and offline distribution must be looked at group level," she said. "You can't ignore either, but what is massively important is if companies are going to have these different distribution channels throughout the trade then the information that the client receives must be consistent.

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