Please allow me to bust the biggest myth in Australian online travel – that we have absurdly low online travel sales penetration rates.

This week at a very pleasant lunch an international travel executive became the latest to propagate the legend by trotting out the old line that there are major opportunities in the Australian travel market because local online travel sales rates are "20% to 25%" – way below US online rates of "50% to 60%".

Really, asked a Sky Business reporter, how can Australian rates be so low?

Logical question … Australians love the internet, have a very high tech adoption rate, a strong economy, use internet-focussed Low Cost Carriers in a very big way – so why don't we book online travel at international levels?

It was a question our speaker was unable to answer. He thought the figure may have come from a well-known US research brand but was unsure if it applied to all online travel or just accommodation.

It's not his fault, online travel penetration figures even lower than these have been doing the rounds for years, regularly repeated by the industry, perhaps because they are self-serving (lower online sales rates mean there's lots of growth left in what is a rapidly-maturing industry).

Follow the link below to read the entire story in a new window:

www.traveltrends.biz/ttn553-busted-the-myth-that-australia-has-low-online-travel-penetration