Summer Holiday Season Boosts Traffic to Cinema and Holiday Sites

Google was the UK’s most visited online property in July, attracting 28.2 million unique visitors – an 89% reach of the total online population, according to the latest figures from comScore.

Google was followed by Microsoft Sites, which attracted 26.9 million unique visitors – a reach of 85%.

The comScore study showed that despite the onset of the summer holiday season, the total UK online population reached its highest ever figure in July, with 31.8 million unique visitors.

Online retail properties eBay and Amazon also ranked amongst the UK’s largest sites, with 22.1 million and 12.5 million unique visitors respectively.

Coinciding with the school summer holidays, cinema site Odeon.co.uk was the top gaining property in July. The site grew from 1.8 to 2.6 million unique visitors – a 49% increase.

This was followed by the fastest growing of three holiday booking properties, lastminute.com, which experienced a 30% increase to reach 5.2 million unique visitors. Cheapflights Sites grew by 22% to 2.8 million unique visitors, while First Choice Holidays PLC grew 19% to 3.6 million.

Bob Ivins, EVP of International Markets at comScore, said: “The success of travel and holiday sites mirrors the seasonal trends in the offline world, with July being a popular month for holiday, retail and entertainment sites.

“However, with the weather in the UK being so poor this summer it’s clear that – for domestic recreation activities at least – people have been surfing the internet for indoor entertainment, hence the growth in traffic to cinema site Odeon.co.uk.”

Ofcom’s recent Communications Market Report 2007 showed that silver surfers spend an average of 42 hours online every month, more than any other age group (see Silver Surfers Spend More Time Online Than Any Other Age Group).

comScore: www.comscore.com