MORE than half of all holidays and flights will be booked online by next year.
And "silver surfers" - those in their 50s and early 60s - are the fastest-growing group of internet travel bookers, research from Thomson Holidays showed.
The rise of the virtual travel agent has accelerated through new online trends such as blogging, podcasting, Google Earth and video streaming, the company added.
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In a report out today, Thomson said nearly 20 million flights and holidays were likely to be booked online this year.
The number of people aged 50-64 who use the internet to book holidays involving flights rose from 16% in 2000 to 27% in 2005.
Only 6% of over-65s used the internet to book holidays involving flights last year, but this was twice as many as in 2000.
The Thomson report also revealed that the quality of the hotel is the key factor in being satisfied with a holiday, followed by the service provided in the destination from the holiday rep and such things as hotel transfers.
Trusted
Recommendations from friends and family were the things that people who booked online trusted most, followed by consumer opinions posted online.
Thomson sales and marketing director Miles Morgan said: "Travel websites are effectively becoming virtual travel agents. The days when people picked a holiday from a brochure and walked into a travel agent to book are over.
"We have seen a massive increase in online bookings over the last year as the site content expands and the booking process becomes easier and fun to use."
He added: "The trend for community sites is also impacting on how people buy holidays. People trust the opinions of other people so we're making it possible for customers to review holidays and post their opinions and pictures they have taken on our website."
Thomson also announced that travellers might one day be able to book a holiday using their fingertips.
Fingertips
Customers would scan their fingertips on their computer and store personal booking information which they could retrieve at a travel kiosk at the airport check-in desk or hotel.
Also, a mobile phone, equipped with a bar code reader, could enable customers to scan bar codes on advertisements or holiday brochures. Details about availability could then be displayed on their mobile phone screen.
A booking confirmation would have a unique barcode that a customer would scan to store it in the phone so that travel shops, hotels and airports would instantly recognise the customer using a radio frequency identification reader - speeding up the check-in and security processes.
The company said voice search technology was also being tested. It would enable people to speak their search request into their mobile device.
