JEDDAH: Half of the Kingdom’s travel agencies are threatened with closure due to e-ticketing which allows travelers to book flights and hotels at low prices without needing to utilize travel agencies’ services.

Mohammed Al-Maajal of the National Committee for Tourism said: “Travel agencies are facing low demands due to e-ticketing which has forced the offices to use advanced programs to provide the possibility of e-booking in order to compete with e-ticketing and thus increase revenues.”

He expects that 80 percent of agents and tourists will turn to e-ticketing in the next five years which threatens to close 50 percent of travel agencies in the Kingdom. He also added that e-booking is easy and there is a period when the booking can be canceled after the confirmation. In addition, there is no obligation to pay after the confirmation.

A travel agency owner, Mohammad Al-Zahrani, said that 50 percent of the offices had begun merging e-booking with their traditional ways or turning completely to e-booking in addition to using new systems and packages to attract agents and tourists and provide them with the best services and compete with e-ticketing.

Omar Al-Waqfi, regional marketing and sales executive at a leading airline, said that 70 percent of airlines prefer dealing with offices and agencies because they have the ability to deal with more than one airline at the same time. Also, the existence of electronic websites are subsidiary to airline companies, which makes them reduce dealings with bookings on mail sites.

Mohammad Al-Omari of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTNH) in Makkah confirmed that most tourists prefer online booking for hotels for many reasons. The most important is the speed and flexibility of the booking, in addition to canceling or adjusting it; also the immediate confirmation of booking.

Additionally, there is a variety of options for the traveler, knowing the impressions and suggestions of those who had previous experience with the hotel and finally, the option of comparing prices.

He confirmed that at present there is no mechanism to control these electronic websites. There should be a list for establishments who perform such activities so that they can be controlled in case of offense or in order to make sure that they follow the basic conditions. He added that the traveler or tourist should check these websites via popular search engine s and stay away from suspicious websites.

Al-Omari said that the number of travel agencies in the Kingdom is 1,328, of which 445 are in Jeddah.