A recent survey conducted by the travel companies has seen a resurgence of people moving back to booking their holidays with high street travel agents, as opposed to booking online. It is thought that in the current economic crisis, people believe that high street travel agents offer more security, especially since the demise of travel operator XL.
This is good news for travel agents, who have been hit hard due to cheap internet holidays and over the past two years the two biggest travel agencies Thomas Cook and TUI have had to shut 250 of their high street shops.
Both TUI and Thomas Cook have reported around a 3% increase in high street bookings compared to the same period last year, with both companies saying that their various TV advertisements (encouraging people to visit their travel agents for advice) had paid dividends.
Virgin Holidays also stated that the majority of its holiday bookings for next year had been made through its travel agents, rather than coming from the internet.