Which destination tops top flights search list in the UK?
Thursday 16, September 2010
In its first ever list of the top 50 flight destinations, as searched for by UK Internet users, Hitwise has found that New York has come out as the most popular destination worldwide.
Between May and July 2010 New York was the most popular destination, accounting for 3.89% of all flights searches by UK Internet users.
Spain was the most popular country for flight searches during the 12-week period, with Spanish resorts in Tenerife, Malaga and Alicante all featuring prominently in the list. Searches for flights within the Eurozone remained popular, accounting for 43.32% of the total flights searches during the quarter.
When Hitwise looked at the top 1,000 flights-related search terms for the quarter, New York was the most searched for destination. In the July quarter last year, New York accounted for 3.16% of flight searches in the UK. For the 12 weeks ending 31 July 2010 searches for flights to the Big Apple had increased to 3.89%, representing a year on year increase of 0.73%.
During the quarter, Spain topped the list for country destinations, accounting for 16.59% of all flight searches. The UK, Turkey, Greece and Canada all moved up in the table (below) compared to last quarter, while Australia and Italy both slipped two places.
The UK improved its position this quarter from fourth to third place, accounting for 6.68% of all flight searches.
“Although we've heard much in the media about the end of “staycation” holidays this year our research seems to indicate otherwise. Newquay has emerged as one of the most up and coming UK holiday destinations jumping from 49th place to 31st place in the top 50 destinations list,” said Robin Goad, research director, Hitwise UK.
Greece climbed two spots this quarter to seventh place, helped by surging interest in resorts in Zante, Rhodes, Crete and Corfu. The attraction of cheaper holidays and reduced prices in Greece since last year is paying dividends with increased Internet searches.
Searches on the rise
As per the quarterly independent research released towards the end of July by Greenlight, a specialist search and social marketing consulting and technology firm, the total number of UK consumer searches for flights in June were up 28% on May levels.
According to the report, ‘Flights Report June 2010’, there were 38 million searches performed online in June by consumers compared to 29 million in May.
However, the research observed a dramatic shift in the way in which they searched for flights online, compared to the previous quarter. Whilst generic keywords accounted for just 6% of online searches for flights in March, they jumped more than five-fold to 40% in June. Meanwhile, search for short haul flights, which accounted for 64% of overall flight search volumes in March, suffered a sharp drop accounting for 38% in June.
Using industry data and proprietary technology, Greenlight identified and classified 356 of the most popular global destinations that UK consumers book flights to and profiled which search terms they used when they went online in June to find flights to each location. The research also took a set of generic keywords which are not destination-specific but are also used when searching for flights.
(Source: Eyefortravel.com)
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