That figure, however, represents only 1.6% of the total retail spend, a stark illustration of exactly how significant retail e-business is. Some sectors are growing much faster than others. Travel, in particular, is fulfilling the high expectations that were set long ago, neatly illustrating one of the internet’s most persuasively useful attributes:
its ability to aggregate and compare information sources. Buying airline or rail tickets online is not only quicker and more convenient than doing it in a cramped travel agent’s office; it is more cost-effective too, because buyers can see for themselves what their options are.
There are now many large and efficient online travel services that can not only display all available flights for a particular date and time, but also find you a hotel or a hire car at the other end. The Travel Industry Association of America estimates that around 64m Americans now research their travel options online and 39m of them actually paid for it in 2002.
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