Direct booking has grown hugely, but travel agents are fighting back, writes Kitty Holland

The rate of internet travel booking has grown at a remarkable rate. It has taken over from booking through travel agents or even over the phone, giving rise to the question of whether a career as a travel agent is one you could recommend to your children.

Aer Lingus, which launched its internet booking service aerlingus.com in March 2001, now sells 90 per cent of its seats out of Ireland online. It's an amazing turnaround on the situation only four years ago, when 70 per cent of its seats were sold through travel agents, the rest being sold over the phone or at airport ticket desks.

Budget Travel, the biggest travel agent in the State, has seen bookings on its internet site grow by over 1,000 per cent in the past year.

"Yes, it has been phenomenal," says Niamh Hayes, a company spokeswoman. "It really says a lot about the shift in the way the travel industry is going."

She says that since the establishment two years ago of the company's online booking site - budgettravel.ie and its own low-cost airline budgetair.ie, which can only be booked online - the proportion of holidays being booked online has overtaken that in the company's 40 shops.

Aer Lingus still pays travel agents a 1 per cent commission on the ticket price, albeit that this is down from 9 per cent in 2001 and the tickets are a lot cheaper today. Ryanair, which sells 98 per cent of its seats online, stopped paying travel agents commission in 2002.

The days when a trip to a local high-street travel agent was the only way to get a ticket to London, Paris or New York are truly over. Today most travellers don't even get a ticket - just a reference number once they've keyed in their credit card details.

The impact on travel agents, according to popular perception, has been disastrous. In the United States the number of travel agents has fallen from 24,000 in 1994 to about 17,000 today.

According to David Winstead, chairman of the US Commission to Ensure Consumer Choice in the Airline Industry: "The e-commerce revolution has dramatically improved the access of every consumer to air travel information. Consumers now have more options than just calling an individual airline reservation system or using a travel agent to obtain airline tickets."

According to the American Society of Travel Agents, "many agencies have been forced out of business" due to reductions in airline commission to agents and the growth in seat-only travel.

Not so here, says the Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA), which represents about 320 of the estimated 400 agents in the State. Michael Doorley, ITAA president, says travel agents here have done "fantastically" in the face of the internet and low-cost airlines.

"There was a bit of a fright for the industry at the beginning of all this and some did go out of business."

But things have turned back around, he says, and last year "just two" agents folded. He says the ones that have "embraced" the internet and are using it to their advantage are thriving.

He also says the association plans in the next year to "go after" the perception that seats booked online are always cheaper than those booked by agents.

"Your travel agent has access to seat-rates on systems, such as the Galileo system," he says.

He tells a number of instances where people looked for seats online first and then contacted agents who were able to get seats at better prices.

Crucially, however, he does concede agents have had to adapt and "become more innovative" to survive the internet's usurping of their role.

"We offer packages and put together deals people won't get if they are doing it on their own.

"Agents will be able to get hotel rooms at preferential rates, organise airport transfers at rates cheaper than a local taxi, get theatre and concert tickets at deals only agents can get. And of course we take the stress out of organising it all."

A spokeswoman for Joe Walsh Tours agrees, saying it's "absolutely a myth" that the internet is always cheaper.

"And we can organise packages that there is no way anyone could do cheaper if they tried organising it all independently."

For example, she cites a package to Sorrento in a four-star hotel for a week at €599 per person sharing, flights and transfers included. "You will not get that except with an agent," she insists.

Hayes too says many people still prefer speaking to an agent.

"It's obviously a more personalised service, the agent can tell the customer, 'Yes this is a fabulous resort, perfect for families, I've sold 20 of these packages in the past week and people love it', or they can advise them against the same place if the customer is looking for non-stop nightlife."

Other agents too, such as Joe Walsh Tours, say that while increasing numbers like to book their own seat-only flights, there are now two markets - the seat-only independent market and the package. And the holiday package is one, they say, the agents still do cheapest and best.