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Brand is king with online consumers
Consumers in the travel sector are becoming more brand loyal and less likely to use the internet to find new travel sites, according to latest stats from internet monitoring company Hitwise.
The company saw inventory owners such as airlines, hotel companies and map providers receive 77% of the share of the top 300 search terms sending visitors to travel websites in the four weeks ending April 26.
This indicates consumers are using search engines more as navigational tools to help them find specific information about a brand rather than as a guiding hand to help them discover new travel providers.
The statistics, which collects data from a variety of ISP networks, also show a 12% decrease in generic searches such as “cheap airline ticketsâ€.
Searches for map websites accounted for 32% of visits to travel websites and meta search engines are now seeing more interest, with a 40% increase in searches arriving with them, albeit from a low base.
By Dinah Hatch
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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