Travel Sites Gaining Share in UK

Visits by UK Internet users to travel related web sites have increased by over a quarter in the 12 months to April 2004, and now represent about 3.7% of all online visits, according to online competitive intelligence providers Hitwise.

The Travel category's share of all Internet visits rose above 4% in January and has dipped slightly since - however this seasonal fluctuation is natural for the sector and online traffic levels are now following a recognisable annual pattern, indicating stability and maturity in the cycle of activity, according to Hitwise. The outbreak of SARS and of the Iraq war appear not to have impacted greatly on the figures - the pattern of visits for early 2003 is very similar to that so far this year.

Simon Chamberlain, General Manager of Hitwise UK, points out that last year traffic rose by around 33% between April and August - 'a similar increase this year would see almost 5% of all UK Internet visits going to Travel related web sites'.

Expedia, the online travel agency owned by the major US company InterActive Corp, has been the most popular Travel Agency site in terms of visits by UK Internet users since January, and currently accounts for more than 1 in 10 visits to the category.

Low cost carriers continue to benefit from the Web and be top of mind for searchers interested in travel. 'EasyJet' continues to be the most searched-for brand, with 'Ryanair' and 'British Airways' just behind.

The following are the most popular terms typed into a search engine over the last 12 weeks that resulted in traffic to websites classified by Hitwise within the 'Travel' industry. For example, the most popular search term was 'easyjet' representing 2.36% of all such searches.

easyjet	2.36
ryanair	1.82
cheap flights	1.67
british airways	1.24
flights	0.98
train times	0.84
holidays	0.84
expedia	0.73
cheap holidays	0.68
travel inn	0.62
travel lodge	0.57
hotels	0.55
easy jet	0.54
national express	0.53
ryan air	0.51

Hitwise' web site is at www.hitwise.co.uk