Thomas Cook outperforms Thomson online

Friday, 13 Dec, 2012 0

Thomas Cook outperformed rival Thomson on search engine Google in November, during which there were 2.9 million searches for holidays online.

Thomascook.com reached 63% of these users in natural search, ranking highest for 85 keywords, including "late deal holidays". Thomson.co.uk reached 58%.

However, the latest Greenlight Sector Report shows that Travelsupermarket.com outperformed both holiday giants, reaching 64% of the market and ranking highest for 70 keywords, including "cheap all inclusive holidays".

The most searched for term was "holidays", which was used 550,000 times on Google in November. The next was "cheap holidays" – 450,000 times – and "last minute holidays" – 246,000 times.

Other popular terms were "direct holidays" and "all inclusive holidays".

Only 33,100 used the term "package holidays" in November when looking for deals on Google. The same number – just 1% of the market – typed in "ski holidays".

For generic holiday keywords, including "cheap holidays" Thomas Cook came out top, reaching 71% of users. Thomson came fourth with 62% and First Choice fifth with 59%.

For searches for long-haul destinations, of which there were 592,000 in November, Travelsupermarket.com came out top, reaching 53% of the audience, Kuoni came second with a 46% share and Virgin Holidays was third with 45%.

The most popular destinations were New York, Dubai and Egypt, closely followed by Las Vegas, Thailand, Cuba and Mexico.

There were 415,000 searches for short-haul destinations, the most popular being Turkey, followed by Cyprus and then Malta. Lanzarote and Mediterranean destinations attracted only half as many as Malta.

Thomascook.com came out top for short-haul destinations, reaching 71% of the audience, followed by Thomson.co.uk with 70%.

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Linsey McNeill

Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk

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