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TTD: Expedia tops ‘weather-related’ travel searches
Expedia.co.uk leads weather-related travel searches on the internet, according to latest data from Hitwise UK.
In the four weeks ending May 20, the site received 17% of traffic from the search term ‘weather in turkey’, 11.1% from ‘holiday weather’, 18.9% from ‘weather in Egypt’, and 14.5% of traffic from searches for ‘weather in Bulgaria’.
In all, 12 of the top 100 search terms sending traffic to Expedia in the month were weather-related, Hitwise has calculated.
The organisation’s research director Heather Hopkins said: “While Expedia is capitalising on the opportunities to attract website visits through weather-related searches, other major travel websites are not targeting weather-related destination searches to the same extent.
“This may in part be due to concerns among online marketers that consumers making such searches are not at the right stage of the decision making process and are less likely to convert.
“Travel companies often find that inclement weather leads to a surge in travel bookings. With the unreliable British summer weather, Expedia’s experiment may well be worthwhile.”
Hitwise found that UK internet users are less interested in weather conditions in long haul destinations such as Australia, New York or Florida, which rank among the top 10 most searched for travel destinations.
Among the most popular destination search terms driving traffic to travel websites in the month were ‘cyprus’, ‘tenerife’, ‘malaga’, ‘cyprus’ and ‘spain’ all regularly combined with the term ‘weather’.
Hopkins said: “Short haul destinations may be more sensitive to weather patterns due to the level of planning required for the trip and uncertainty over weather conditions. Long haul trips are typically planned long in advance, with consumers booking flights now for trips in the fall or winter. Also, consumers may nhave more confidence in the weather outlook for Florida and Australia than for short haul destinations.”
Report by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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