Internet usage in ME region records world’s highest annual growth rate

WAM -- Conventional travel agencies are losing ground in favour of their online counterparts, with recent statistics showing that the use of internet in the Middle East region is increasing by 15 percent annually, the world's highest growth rate, approaching the 150 million mark.

This came during panels sessions featured by the Digital Transformation Summit, held on the sidelines of the now-running Arabian Travel Market 2017 in Dubai. Participants in the summit called for examining recent trends in tourists' use of technology to discover, plan and provide untraditional options that are likely to help agencies compete with digital-only peers.

The summit brings together groupings of industry experts from academia and practice for conversations on emerging technologies, trends, and challenges in the tourism industry. They urged travel agents to adopt unconventional methods to attract clients through social media and electronic platforms.

Recent statistics have showed that traditional travel agencies have lost ground and a considerable share of their business as a result of the state of digital transformation witnessed in the tourism industry, with more than 50 percent of them facing the threat of totally forfeiting their business over the coming five years in case they have failed to woo their clients through websites and social media forums WAM / Hatem /