The Icelandic volcano has brought good news for some. The website for driving holidays in Europe, Drive-Alive, experienced a two-fold increase in hits during the shutdown of European airspace.
The busiest day was Monday April 19th, with 4214 hits to the main website against 2164 the previous Monday. The ferry section of the wesbite did even better with over 5 times the usual number of hits.
The increase was of course largely due to stranded passengers desparate to find information about the various ferry routes between Europe and the UK, folk who would not normally travel by ferry but suddenly found they had no option.
Throughout the crisis Drive-Alive was busy tweeting the latest updates and directing travellers to its blog where the company posted a schedule of the various ferry services.
Drive-Alive’s MD, Stuart Mee, says the increase in users is not likely to translate into a similar increase in revenue, as most people will have simply used the site as a source of information before making their way to the ferryports.
But he is confident that the crisis has raised the profile of the website and its associated social media, and perhaps made people more wary of flying, all of which will result in a long-term benefit to the business.
Drive-Alive
Ferries UK to Europe
Drive-Alive blog
Drive-Alive on Twitter
