As a result, the travel industry is fast becoming a major player on the World Wide Web. According to two Internet research firms, Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Jupiter Communications in New York, on-line travel bookings this year will total dollars 3.1 billion, and they expect the figure to rise to dollars 29 billion by 2003. Rather than relying on travel agents to find and interpret information about flights, fares, hotels, cruises, time shares, vacation packages, car rentals and the like, savvy travelers are increasingly doing it themselves, searching vast quantities of information and making comparisons on their own. But the Internet is a two-edged sword. On-line consumers need to know what they are doing and they need to keep their wits about them.
Unwary users can fall victim to scams.
Even where outright fraud is not involved, something billed as a bargain may not actually be one. The majority of Internet travel sites are legitimate. What follows is a guide to useful and popular Web sites for travelers. It is not meant to be encyclopedic. All offer searching and booking for a full range of travel activities and needs.