'It is interesting to note that online travel sites are surfed by a majority of people even if they don't end up booking from the site. Around 77 percent of Internet-connected people use these sites to search for airline information, 65 percent use the sites to search for train information, 59 percent for hotel and 57 percent for information on holidays,' said Pant.

'The online travel agents have garnered a significant share of the airline ticket booking, considerably higher than even the company website of the airlines. The main alternatives to online travel agents include traditional travel agents/tour operators, booking offices of hotels, and railway website for train booking,' said Pant.

The study included 842 people from four Metros - Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and three mini-metros - Lucknow, Vadodara, Coimbatore.

Respondents were in the age group 20-55 years and included those who had traveled by air in the past 12 months and used the Internet to surf for travel related information.