The title of the research study was “Search for and optimal purchasing of an airline ticket”. A web-based survey of airline passengers in South Africa was done and it was found that airline websites are the preferred channel when searching for airline tickets and passengers perceive a price advantage when booking airline tickets further in advance of time of departure. The results also indicate that passengers are not willing to spend a substantial amount of time when searching for airline tickets in order to obtain the best price. A paper on the research and the results was presented by Prof Lubbe and Dr Douglas at the 20^th annual ENTER conference, held in Innsbruck, Austria, in January 2013. The conference paper will be included in the electronic journal e-Review of Tourism Research.

The conference was organised by the International Federation for Information Technologies in Travel and Tourism (IFITT). IFITT is the leading independent global community for the discussion, exchange and development of knowledge about the use and impact of new information and communication technologies (ICT) in the travel and tourism industry.