Internet becoming indispensible to European travel industry

This article is about the Internet becoming the major tool for the European travel industry. Indeed, customers and providers win on both sides.

Concerning the customers, they can book 24/7 (without having the hassle of going to a travel agency), travels and packages that are more and more transparent pricewise, and customers can even create their own "à la carte travel" without having to buy a whole package. This shows that travelers are getting used to less and less personal services but more flexbility.

On the other hand, for travel agencies or tour operators, offering their products online means also less costs. Indeed, they do not have to rent or buy offices in different places anymore and staffwise, they do not have so many employees anymore. Expedia, EasyJet and Ryanair among others are the best examples of this new trend.

For the hospitality industry, this means that hoteliers need to be more and more present on the Internet and now how to use properly this new way ofdistributing inventory. Transparency is good for the customers but also means that hotels cannot cheat anymore and need the service needs to be as perfect as it is described on the Internet. It has become even more important now that the customers can leave their commentaries anywhere on the net.