U.S. Online Travel Market to Soar

Year after year the Internet proves to be a valuable resource ..... read this article hide this article

U.S. online travel sales are projected to reach a year-end total of $54 billion in 2004, comprising just under a quarter (23 percent) of all domestic travel sales, according to the latest market forecast by JupiterResearch. That figure marks a 20 percent year-over-year increase above the 2003 total. Research from comScore and PhoCusWright corroborate that rosy outlook.

According to Jupiter's report, which tracks sales by major direct distributors and third parties, robust growth is predicted to continue through 2009, reaching a total of $91 billion, or 33 percent of all travel purchased.

Travel Industry Association reports on travellers' use of the Internet and World Wide Web.

Interesting statistics about whos using the web and for what ..... read this article hide this article

The Internet and online services are very popular with travelers. Travelers tend to be quite computer savvy, with:

two thirds (67%) of the 95.8 million travelers who are online-64.1 million-using the Internet to make travel plans in 2003.
Among online frequent travelers, 74 percent use the Internet for travel planning.
Use of the Internet to actually book travel continues to increase, with 44 percent of all travelers now online having made travel reservations on the Internet during the past year.
That translates to 42.2 million online travel bookers, up 8 percent over 2002.
The majority (72%) of online bookers are using the Internet to do at least half of all their travel booking.
Interestingly, 75 percent of online travel bookers say they bought airline tickets for a trip taken in the past year,
71 percent booked overnight lodging accommodations,
and 43 percent made rental car reservations.

(Source: Travelers Use of the Internet, 2003 Edition)

Online leisure travel planners, or E-travel consumers, tend to be heavy travelers who use the Internet about 16 hours per week. A majority (66%) do more than half of all trip planning online. What types of leisure trips are planned online?

These trips are often for entertainment/vacation purposes (37%) or to visit friends and relatives (34%).
Many trips planned online are taken by car (46%) or by air (41%).
Over half (59%) of these trips include a hotel/motel/B&B stay.
The most popular elements of online trip planning are searching for maps/driving directions (60%),
searching for lodging (53%),
searching for things to do at the destination (45%),
and searching for airfares/schedules (41%).

Six in ten online planners also have booked travel online at least once in the past year. Those who book leisure travel on the Internet spend an average of $2,146 per year online for travel products and services.
(Source: E-Travel Consumers: How They Plan and Book Leisure Travel Online)

Department of Homeland Security recommends switching web browsers.

Major security problems with Microsoft's Internet Explorer ..... read this article hide this article

Recent security failings in Internet Explorer have caused experts (Including the United States Department of Homeland Security's Computer Emergency Readiness Team) to recommend that consumers stop using Internet Explorer and switch to other browsers. Mozilla Firefox and other Mozilla browsers use a fundamentally different security architecture than does Internet Explorer. As a result, Mozilla browsers are not affected by a range of security problems that compromise Internet Explorer. For more detail on exploits leading to the suggestion to switch see: http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/713878 and http://secunia.com/advisories/12048/, http://secunia.com/advisories/12048/.

There are a number of significant vulnerabilities in technologies relating to the IE domain/zone security model, the DHTML object model, MIME type determination, and ActiveX. It is possible to reduce exposure to these vulnerabilities by using a different web browser, especially when browsing untrusted sites. Such a decision may, however, reduce the functionality of sites that require IE-specific features such as DHTML, VBScript, and ActiveX. *Note that using a different web browser will not remove IE from a Windows system, and other programs may invoke IE, the WebBrowser ActiveX control, or the HTML rendering engine (MSHTML).

The Technical Support department at this website encourages and promotes the use of Mozilla Firefox. In our opinion it is a superior alternative to Internet Explorer and one that provides an enhanced 'web-surfing' experience. We strongly recommend its use.