Online holiday searchers not prepared to wait for last-minut
Source: Steven Cox
Ten per cent more people clicked on to travel websites to search for their dream summer holiday in June than the same time a year ago.
Collation of the figures released by the top five search engines by online measurement specialists comScore showed that travellers who are free to choose where they want to go for their main annual holiday are starting their searches early, with April to June being the period when holiday-related searches hit their peak.
And this year, as the holiday booking season reached its high-point, 272million people entered holiday-related queries on the top five search engines �C Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask and AOL, 10 per cent more than a year earlier.
Commenting on the statistics on Searchenginewatch, Eli Goodman, business development and research team leader for comScore, pointed out that half of people began their holiday search by visiting an information and advice-led site, rather than an online travel agency, resulting in a boom in visitors to sites such as TripAdvisor.
As a result, he said, these content-based sites are attracting massive amounts of display advertising, as agents and trip organisers try to target their messages and products at their visitors.
"Because the online travel purchase can take some time to develop, the earlier you imprint your targeted brand message into the minds of the travellers on these content-based travel sites (perfect for display advertising), the better your results are likely to be down the road," Goodman wrote.
From the advertisers' points of view, he said: "The battle is fierce, and every marketer will do whatever they can to get you to convert during your visit, since they know you're beginning to reach the point of purchase when you visit their sites by way of branded search terms."
Goodman concluded that, when it comes to terms used for holiday-related searches: "'Cheap' is a bad word ... except when it comes to travel," and he advises anyone looking for good search engine rankings: "Don't leave home without it!"
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