Rocky road for high street travel agents

The high street travel agent is under threat of extinction as more bookings are now made through so-called "direct" routes, such as the internet.

The trend has prompted some commentators to predict that the travel-agency industry - founded by former preacher Thomas Cook in the 1840s - will disappear within a generation.

"It's not a job I would think of taking," said one senior industry figure.

The findings, published in Travel Trade Gazette, show that last year only 46 per cent of holidays were booked through travel agencies and 54 per cent direct. Ryanair.com now sells 95 per cent of its 24 million annual bookings online.

British Airways, which accounts for about 40 per cent of all travel agents' bookings, once paid commission of nine per cent on tickets sold through travel agents.

Now it wants to pay just one per cent.

A spokesman for the Association of British Travel Agents said many traditional agencies had websites and were not losing out to new online agents.