Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical office, issued data on the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) on the occasion of the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day. The report showed that the use of ICT has contributed a great deal to changing the way European travelers make their bookings.
The report noted that tourists from the EU used the Internet more as bookings were done online for over 67 percent of air trips and over 50 percent of train trips in 2014. Additionally, accommodation was booked online for nearly 55 percent of the trips by European travelers.
Furthermore, the organizations operating in the accommodation sector are more advanced than several other sectors, when it comes to using ICT. The vast majority of the accommodation providers offered online booking facility. Online ordering facility is offered by 74 percent of the businesses in the accommodation sector as compared to the all enterprises average of 17 percent.
Tourists from Finland (90.2 percent) are on top as far as online flight ticket booking is concerned. When it comes to online accommodation booking, the Netherlands (68.7 percent) is on top.
The highest online air travel booking was done by the Member States Finland and Netherlands – 90 percent and 81 percent, respectively. The countries on the other end of the spectrum, as far as online flight booking is concerned, were Romania 23 percent, Slovakia 27 percent, Czech Republic 38 percent, Belgium 45 percent and Greece 47 percent. Overall, 67 percent of the European travelers booked air travel tickets online and accommodation was booked for 55 percent of the trips.
The starting point for carrying out e-business is the website. In 2015, 95 percent of all organizations in the accommodation sector in the EU had a website as compared to 75 percent of all organizations that employ 10 or more people. As a result, 63 percent of the enterprises operating in the accommodation received online orders. On the other hand, online orders received by all enterprises stood at 19 percent.