Visits to travel websites in the first week of January increased 15% on the same period last year and accounted for 5.41% of all online traffic, according to latest figures.
Data released by Hitwise revealed the travel sector hit its second highest peak over the past 15 months, only marginally lower than the 5.57% share in August 2005.
In the week ending December 31, visits grew 25%
“Early indications are that travel websites are set to enjoy a strong year in 2006,” said director of research Heather Hopkins.
Unsurprisingly, ski holiday have taken off in the last two weeks with traffic up 28% while demand for far flung destinations has also soared in the last week with searches for Australia up 50%, New Zealand 42% and Thailand 33%.
The importance of search was also underlined in the latest figures with a 30% increase in the number of visits generated through search engines.
Search accounts for 38% of all visits to travel websites with Google driving 73% of those during December, Hitwise said.
