Fatima Muhammad Saudi Gazette JEDDAH – Only 7 percent of people in the Kingdom who use Internet to do their ticket booking online. This percept is very low compared to the developed countries where the percept hits 30 percent. “We are hoping that the increase of Internet users in the Kingdom will help this present (online booking) to reach 20 percent in the coming years, putting in mind that there are now 15 million Internet users 6 million of them are on Facebook,” said Nashat Bukhari, general manager of Amadeus in Saudi Arabia. The online booking he said is low in the Kingdom because travel agencies did not invest in this domain and also people lack trust in doing financial transactions online, said Bukhari, answering a Saudi Gazette question on the sidelines of a press conference announcing a new study addressing the travel agency market in the Kingdom. According to him, travel agencies need to address the online market and benefit from all the promising opportunities available at it. Bukhari stressed on the importance of training employees to be able to enhance the qualifications of Saudis heading to this sector. He added that many agencies are now employing women who proved to be doing their job efficiently. At the same time, Bukhari called on travel agencies to provide attracting benefits and contracts for employees to encourage them to remain in the sector. The number of travels has increased in the Kingdom in the previous years, said Bukhari, as the development in the Kingdom has improved the level of income and encouraged people to travel more. “In 2011 the number of ticket reservations was almost 23 million, while we except this number to increase by 4 percent in 2013.” According to him there are 8000 travel agencies in the Kingdom. These travel agencies must have different packages to be able to satisfy the demand especially that some destinations might not attract clients due to political unrests. The new study addressing the travel agencies market in the Kingdom is conducted by Hermes Management Consulting and commissioned by Amadeus, a technology partner for the global travel industry, and Hermes Management Consulting. The study helps identify the value of using the newest technology in the distribution sector. It stated that travel agencies that adopted new generation IT solutions saved over 20 percent in cost and increased their agents productivity by 15 percent. The study offers an understanding of business and leisure travel agencies in Saudi Arabia through examining their business models, processes, cost drivers and productivity levels. It also allows comparing results with a similar study conducted in 2006 with the same agencies participating in the previous study. According to the study conducted in 2006, the average sales volume for the travel agencies participating in the study was €27.8 million and € 2.0 million in revenue (7.1 percent gross margin). In 2011, the same travel agencies increased their sales volume by 42.1 percent to €39.5 million and their revenues by 30.0 percent to €2.6 million (6.7 percent gross margin). On average and in 2011 compared to 2006, leisure travel agencies increased sales by 64 percent and revenues by 46 percent, whereas business travel agencies' growth in sales was 19 percent and 18 percent in revenues. Therefore, the leisure segment has increased its share of sales from 48.8 percent to 56.5 percent for participating travel agencies.
