Travelstart, an online travel agency with its headquarters in Cape Town that has been in operation for 12 years, recently sought to find out why traditional travel agents charge so much more for flights than the online bunch. The data obtained was quite alarming, finding many bricks and mortar agencies charging customers significantly more in comparison to the cost of  booking flights online.

The research process, conducted by Synovate, included:

• Comparing prices offered on the Travelstart website at the same time that it queried prices from the agencies surveyed.
• Contacting 50 different outlets across 6 travel agency brands, and successfully collecting 317 quotes for flights to 10 international destinations to investigate pricing, consistency and the quality of service offered by the travel agents
• Not revealing to agents contacted  that they were part of a survey, in order to establish the level of service that would be offered to any regular call-in customer. The first price that the agency quoted was used in analysing the results of the survey – so no negotiating took place.

While Travelstart commissioned the research and identified six travel agency brands and 10 popular flight routes, Synovate selected the dates and flight times, the number of passengers and other elements that were used in the research.

The results of the research were displayed in an infographic that compares the price of flights from traditional travel agents and online travel agents.

View the infographic below: