| Do you remember the days when the Internet was | | | | we were happy to spend even more money online. |
| in its infancy and when many people were afraid to | | | | Before long, we are buying everything from furniture |
| shop online? It certainly seems strange to look back, | | | | to holidays. |
| given the way that Internet shopping has taken off | | | | Maybe you've booked a holiday in this way yourself? |
| in recent years. | | | | If not, you may well have missed out on some great |
| We now think of it as being a perfectly normal thing | | | | deals. What many people like about making travel |
| to do a vast amount of shopping in this way. So | | | | arrangements via the Internet is that they have the |
| what's changed in the past few years? | | | | ability to do an enormous amount of research from |
| There are a number of factors at play here. Security | | | | their own homes. |
| was clearly a key concern in those early days. Many | | | | This means that you can find out a lot about a |
| of us worried about handing over our credit card | | | | particular resort, hotel or tourist destination. In a |
| details via the Internet. We wondered whether we | | | | sense, what the Internet allows you to do is to try |
| might leave ourselves exposed to fraud and identity | | | | and avoid some of the worst horrors that were |
| theft. | | | | once associated with making travel bookings. |
| Although such concerns have not completely | | | | If you think about how you used to make your |
| disappeared, there's no doubt that many of us have | | | | travel arrangements, you can see how much things |
| grown in confidence. We shopped online regularly and | | | | have really improved. You may once have relied on |
| realised that the process is just as secure as handing | | | | traditional travel agents. In which case, you were |
| over our credit card in a traditional shop. | | | | probably heavily reliant on holiday brochures. |
| What sort of things are we buying online? The | | | | Now that you look back, you can see just how little |
| answer seems to be that we are prepared to | | | | information was contained in such brochures. These |
| purchase just about anything. In the early days, | | | | days, you have access to far more information, |
| people tended to by items that had a relatively low | | | | allowing you to make more informed holiday booking |
| value. The likes of Amazon were able to benefit | | | | decisions and hence get better deals. |
| from this trend. | | | | That's why an increasing number of people choose to |
| Such businesses realise that we were happy to buy | | | | make their travel arrangements via Internet travel |
| books and CDs online. But it soon became clear that | | | | agents. |