How do people in the UK use online sources to search for holidays?

How do people in the UK use online sources to search for holidays?

A number of trends and conclusions can be made from looking at ‘icrossing’s’ pdf, which summarises holiday’s and how potential customers search and book their holidays.

One inference made in the document, is that planned long holiday travel is more popular than, impulse travel. One explanation for this could relate to current economic climate, travellers would rather invest in a long summer holiday, than short expensive breaks throughout the year, because usually these breaks are made in cities, which can be very expensive. This is also another reason for why travellers have become more Internet savvy, when searing for holidays and finding good deals.

Holiday’s in relation to Internet searches

These findings below show the type of holiday’s travellers search for:

·         New York is the most searched for holiday, this may be due to good marketing, and good economic resources.

·         Most short break searches are in the EU. However New York does top the short break destination, which is an anomaly.

·          Flights dominate the most Internet searched, in relation to transport.

·          “Things to do” is the most common search term when planning a city break, followed by “restaurants” and “maps”. This means travellers are more interested in practical things to do, rather than reading detailed guides.

·         By putting cheap flights as your website name it automatically puts you ahead of competition.

·         Women are the organisers…..

·         Those aged 35-49 were most likely to search in all Breaks-related categories

·         Transport and accommodation was also dominated by Women searching from the 35-49 category

·         However the information search was mostly dominated by females in the 25-34 age range

A summary of the main points when regarding taking a holiday

1.                  Being visible for stag and hen breaks is an opportunity for travel companies.

2.                  The most popular city destination for a short break is New York, followed by Paris, London, Amsterdam and Rome.

3.                   Shortest travel times win over cheapest or greenest options when planning a short break suggesting people want the most time in their destination.

4.                   Women are more likely to perform online holiday research than men.

5.                   Consumers are becoming smarter at searching online, preferring trusted branded searches to more generalized ones.

6.                   Handy hints and lists of things to do are more sought after than descriptive narratives about a place.

7.                   The five most visible websites for breaks related searches contain user generated reviews.

The diagram below shows the leaders in the .com city break searches. As you can see lastminute.com is the most searched for, followed by superbreak.com, towards the end is Thomson, which shows the decline in travellers searching for established travel companies. This may be because they think they can find better deals from other websites.

In addition online sources are definitely affecting the choice of holiday and accommodation people want. This is mainly due to the rise of review websites, such as trip advisor. Travellers often look on these websites before they book their holiday and if the reviews are below average, they may select another accommodation.