Visits to UK travel websites reached 5.41% for the week ending 7th January 2006, up by 15% year on year, according to online competitive intelligence monitor, Hitwise.
Hitwise revealed that last week, the sector reached its second highest peak over the last 15 months, while visits to travel websites were up by 25% from the week ending December 31st.
Commenting on the findings, Heather Hopkins, director of research for Hitwise, said: “Early indications are that travel websites are set to enjoy a strong year in 2006.”
She continued: “January is typically a busy time for travel websites as consumers turn their attention from the sales to winter escape, and reports of an unusually cold winter may also be good news for the travel sector.”
Hitwise claim the figures show a marked increase of 30% in the volume of visits search engines are sending to travel websites, with Google’s dominance continuing to be felt, accounting for 73% of the visits that travel sites received from search engines in December.
Online travel revenues in the US are forecast to reach $104 billion by 2010, representing 34% of all travel expenditure, according to Jupiter Research (see Online Travel Revenues To Rise By 20% In 2005).
The strong performance in the online travel division is echoed in predictions from Merrill Lynch, with the analyst slightly less optimistic than Jupiter, forecasting online travel agency revenues to reach $27.7 billion by the end of 2005 (see Online Travel Revenues To Rise By 19% In 2005).
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