The table below shows industry and sector results in some key aspects of the survey.

Click image to enlarge

There are some striking variations between the sectors, indicating perhaps a different
emphasis on how companies want to serve their online customers.

The Airlines companies all provided general search functions, and most provided site maps and general FAQ sections also. This contrasts sharply with the Web-Based Resellers: none provide search functions while all have FAQ sections and site maps. The Resellers were best for using CSS for page layout, although 33 percent is still a low proportion. However only 17% of Resellers provide tags on all home page images, compared with 75% of
Car Rental companies.

The Cruise Lines sector fared poorly in the online communication area - one in three do not facilitate online queries. Also, this sector had the worst record for replying to queries, with 25 percent not replying to at least one email. Cruise companies are not the best at
providing telephone contact either –13 percent do not provide a telephone number for queries, the highest proportion of any sector.

Web-Based Resellers clearly consider email to be a vital part of their business. All provided online contact methods; 96 percent of our queries were answered within a day and 83 percent of companies sent four helpful replies within that one-day timeframe. 17 percent did not reply to all four of our queries, however.

The Resellers also led in the data sharing area. None share personal data with third parties.

One in three in the Hotels & Resorts sector shares this data, however, and 92 percent use it for marketing without permission. Surprisingly, given their record in data sharing, all of the Resellers use personal data for marketing without prior consent.