Consumers don't trust travel agents

Here's a story from TravelMole about why consumers do not trust Travel Agents:

"Consumers doubt agents provide good value"

A few interesting numbers:

1) Only a quarter of holidaymakers believe travel agents offer good value for money

2) 42% "actively disagreed" that agents offer the best deal

3) 46% who arranged their own holiday themselves preferred the DIY route because they wanted to get the best deal or believed it was cheaper to arrange it themselves

4) Around one in five (22%) thought that agents in general do not give honest, trustworthy advice, and only 38% believing that their advice is independent

5) Half of those who had booked a holiday abroad within the last 12 months had arranged everything themselves without using an agent

6) More than two-fifths used the internet to research before booking, compared to 29% who phone or visited a travel agency to do the same

7) Only 14% of those surveyed asked friends and family for holiday advice and just 13% read a guidebook

8) Of those who booked with travel agents, 18% didn't agree that the agent tried to sell them the most suitable holiday, but the others were mostly satisfied with their travel agents

These are stats from a survey of 3,000 adults by Holiday Which? So I would assume these are UK residents.

I find these some of these numbers kinda low.

- Only 22% don't trust travel agents' advice?
- Only 2/5 used the internet for research?
- Only 14% asked friends and family?

What I want to know is:

- What is the demographics of these respondents? I would say younger people tend to be more DIY and have the time and know-how to research on the web and get the deals, whereas older people prefer face-to-face contact.

- How many of these people are regular travelers? i.e. at least twice a year (whether on business or holiday) to a destination outside of - say - 200km radius. This would give an indication of their "savvyness". No 5 above seems to indicate that the more frequent travelers tend to DIY.

- How many have home computers and are active internet users? How many booked online?

- Was this survey done face-to-face (in front of a Thomas Cook and the like), or a mix of online and off-line surveys?

Similar research in the US market would be very interesting as well....