“Choice is a tax on time and attention,” says NYC professor of marketing and author Scott Galloway, who adds, “Consumers don’t want more choice, but more confidence in the choices presented.” It’s a sentiment embodied in Travelport’s just-released 2024 State of Modern Retailing Report, which concludes that a majority of travellers feel overwhelmed by too many choices when it comes to trip planning. And that presents an opportunity for travel agencies, it adds.

“Despite travel providers favouring direct-to-consumer connections, the sheer volume of options is overwhelming to travellers, making them less confident in their booking choices,” says Jen Catto, Chief Marketing Officer at Travelport. “Our research found that instead of feeling excited after booking a trip, most travellers are left feeling anxious, wondering if they got the best deal. For the travel industry, this signals a growing need and opportunity for travel agencies. Their expertise in comparison shopping aids travellers in confidently booking the best option, based on their personal preferences.”

The report states that “In the last few years, there’s been a global movement to cut out third parties and build connections with consumers – largely through mobile-first apps like Instagram… This ‘direct to consumer,’ or DTC movement, has resulted in an explosive amount of product choice, which by and large, has not delivered on the promise of better value by cutting out the retailer and a brick-and-mortar footprint.

“The pendulum has swung so far in the DTC camp, one could argue it really stands for ‘Difficult to Compare.’ Consumers want choice; they need it to feel confident in their decisions. But – and this is important – they don’t want to waste their time and attention trying to understand the value of hundreds of options. That’s why they use retailers like Amazon and Alibaba that offer comparison charts, recommendation engines, and granular filtering. Imagine you went to the grocery store, and there were 500 types of mac-and-cheese products on the shelves — all different sizes, prices, and flavours. Talk about analysis paralysis.

“The travel industry is the latest to adopt this DTC drive. And with good intentions: airlines want to own the end-to-end customer journey so they can use that data to refine their product offering and drive revenue… However, for the industry’s digital transformation to be successful, we believe this drive cannot be at the cost of putting consumers first, or in our case, the traveller.”

Report highlights

More choice leave travellers feeling overwhelmed

• Travelport estimates that air travel options have gone from about 500 economy/ business options available in 2010 to over 10,000 options in 2024 (economy, economy plus, flexi- family, business, first, etc.). That’s a 1,900% increase.
• The majority of travellers (58%) feel that the volume of choice is overwhelming.
• 56% of travellers say that airline offers are more difficult to understand now than they were 10 years ago.
• 61% of travellers also believe there are more penalties now when changing a flight than there were 10 years ago, with 66% citing that there are too many hidden fees.
• The majority of travellers (71%) sometimes feel anxious about whether they got the best deal after they’ve booked their trip, with 42% feeling like airline offers have become ‘less suitable’ over time in meeting their personal preferences.

DTC (Direct to Consumer) feels like more difficult to compare

• Most travellers (80%) agree that comparing fares from different airlines is very time-consuming, with more than two-thirds (69%) feeling that information is often restricted on some airline booking sites.
• When it comes to shopping for all components of their trip, 60% said they spend an average of one to four hours planning, while more than one-third (36%) spend more than five hours searching and comparing options before booking.
• Most respondents (88%) agree they would prefer to see all flight options and fares on one screen, which is likely the reason that more than half (54%) said they frequently use a comparison site to search for information before purchasing their ticket.
• The majority of Millennial (70%) and Gen X (64%) travellers often use online travel agencies (OTAs) to book, citing choice and price transparency as the primary reasons.
• Travellers are looking to artificial intelligence (AI) to provide more than just a chatbot, and agencies will increasingly rely on their technology partners to implement AI and ML (machine learning) in creative ways.

Amenities that matter most

• When booking flights, respondents said that luggage allowance (63%), cancellation and change policies (50%), and seat selection (50%) are the most important factors to compare.
• Most travellers (63%) also stated that they feel airlines do not put the customer first when it comes to customer servicing matters (flight cancellations, exchanges, etc.)
• The hotel features that were cited as most important to travellers were WiFi availability (48%), complimentary breakfast options (47%), and hotel facilities (45%).

The report concludes: “It is unrealistic to assume travellers will abide by a tax on their time and attention by trying to compare multiple versions of “premium economy,” infinite pairings of timings and price, and over 10,000 branded products from the world’s top 250 airlines… We believe there is a better, easier, and more profitable way to manage and present multi-source content. After all, Jeff Bezos is somewhere on a yacht right now because he made it easy for consumers to compare apples to oranges in an apples-to-apples way.”

Travelports Catto adds, “Travel providers are continually refining and expanding their offerings to fit their customers unique needs and preferences. Prioritizing partnerships with agencies will ensure a truly personalized service to their travellers. That will make the shopping experience seamless for all.”