Online travel sees offline touch for cruise

By Kyle Peterson

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Online travel companies trying to make inroads into the burgeoning cruise market are finding best results by involving human sales people rather than pushing resistant travelers to book expensive trips on the Internet.

The chief executives of two of the largest online travel agencies -- Expedia Inc and Priceline.com Inc, -- this week said that despite the ease of online travel bookings and the wealth of helpful travel reviews, cruise buyers still want a flesh-and-blood travel agent to help them plan those trips.

Expedia has invested in an offline cruise company and an online discussion site rather than focusing on pure online offerings.

"It lends itself to a more hands-on sale," said Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi at the Reuters Travel and Leisure Summit in Los Angeles. "The more complex the product the more difficult it is to sell that product online."

Data from Phocuswright, a travel research company, show total U.S. cruise revenue from ticket sales for 2007 was $13.4 billion. Only about 7 percent ($994 million) of that amount was derived from online bookings.

That compares with the broader U.S. travel industry where about half of all leisure bookings are made on Web sites.

Phocuswright projects growth in online cruise bookings will grow to $1.3 billion in 2009, but that amount will still represent only 8 percent of the cruise bookings market.

Of the total online cruise bookings, 70 percent were made through online travel agencies in 2007 as opposed to cruise company Web sites.  Continued...