Online travel reservations have become the latest trend in Lebanon as more passengers prefer to book flights from the comfort of their homes and without the need to pay a commission for travel agencies.
“I personally make all my trips reservations online because I save hundreds of dollars while visiting the same places suggested by travel agents,” said Joelle Diab, a 30-year-old schoolteacher.
Diab said that travel websites give clients hints about when is the best time to reserve for a trip to get the best price.
“Also, when using a website you can reserve directly without paying high commissions contrary to when you deal with travel agents,” she said.
Diab cited one example, saying that she traveled to Prague, Vienna and Budapest less than a year ago by reserving through a well-known website for only $900, including the price of the airfare, four-star hotels and train transport between the three destinations. “If I had reserved with a travel agent I would have paid double this amount,” she said.
Likewise, Caroline Dana, a 35-year-old sales manager, said she prefers to travel by using online websites, which allow her to save big money while traveling more. “I traveled so many times by buying offers online,” she said. “This helped me save big amounts of money while seeing more places,” she added.
Dana said that in addition to saving money, reserving online provides one with a great selection of hotels and tickets.
But while some people have gotten used to online services, others still prefer to travel through agencies.
“I don’t feel secure to reserve my trips online,” said Nada Ayan, a 35-year-old bank employee. “I tried it before by reserving a four-star hotel in Georgia but when I reached the country I found out that the hotel rated as three stars and it was very dirty, not as it showed online.”
Ayan explained that travel agencies provide their clients with services that cannot be accessed online. “Agents can guide you to the best accommodation depending on your needs,” she said. “Also, if you face any problem and you need to change rooms or accommodation even, they can help you with that,” she said.
Ayan believes that traveling is a luxurious activity and it is better to pay a few more bucks for a better experience rather than saving and facing any issues during a trip.
With the increased popularity of travel websites, some travel agents in Lebanon have started to follow the online trend by providing their clients with the option to reserve their trips online for them to save time and money.
“We give people the chance to buy their tickets online since we have the same database of travel websites such as Expedia,” said Marwan Malaeb, finance manager at Tania Travel. “As for hotels we do not give this service yet but we will launch it in less than a year.”
Malaeb said that travel agents cannot ignore the online trend because around 33 percent of Lebanese travelers nowadays make trips reservations online. “This trend will become even more popular when it comes to individual reservations in the near future.”
But Malaeb believes that travel agents can still give their clients services that cannot be provided by online websites. “For instance, if a client wants to change their flight timing, we can do it sometimes without incurring any extra charges because we have direct links with airlines,” he said. “This applies to corporates mainly because they usually reserve in big numbers and they need one or two dedicated employees to follow up on their reservations and any changes that occur,” he added.
Malaeb said that dealing with a travel agent allows the customer to get a visa easily. “For example, Tania Travel has a special link to the French Embassy due to its clean record,” he said. “We can help people who reserve with us to get the visa easily,” he added.
He also noted that some agencies, such as Tania Travel, give their clients the chance to pay for their trips by installments via bank financing.
Given all the added-value services provided by travel agents, Malaeb said that online reservations are not yet a threat to agencies and they have not impacted revenues at Tania Travel. “What really impacted our revenues at Tania Travel is the drop in tickets prices, but we are still maintaining the same market share,” he said.
Likewise, Sharif Chaya, sales manager at New Plaza Tours, said that his agency has started providing its customers with the option of reserving for tickets and hotels on their websites. “We cannot ignore the new online trend and we believe that it will become more popular with time but we still believe that travel agencies give added-value services compared to online products.”
Chaya said that travel agents help people in choosing their destination based on their preferences. “We help people in making good choices especially if they haven’t traveled much before,” he said, adding that travel agencies offer help in visa in addition to offering payment facilities.
While Chaya said his agency was not impacted much yet by online reservations, Tarek Daher, manager at Five Stars Tours, said that his agency lost a small youth-market share. “Young people are the ones who use online websites mostly because they are more aware of these trends and they know how to do it well,” he said.
Daher added that people in Lebanon still feel more secure going to agencies to make reservations in a bid to avoid bad surprises in their trips. “But we still cannot ignore the online trend and we are studying the possibility to go online,” he said.
