Traveling close to home continues to be a strong trend as most U.S. Internet users opt not to travel for the holidays this year. While 52 percent told About.com that, like in 2008, they would not travel this holiday season, another 24 percent said they were even less likely to travel this year than last.
The biggest theme for those trips still on for 2009 was spending less money and researching online more—two factors that are probably connected, because respondents thought Web research was the single-best way to save on travel.
Money-saving attitudes, unsurprisingly, have an effect on what kinds of ads are most likely to reach consumers. Asked which online travel advertisements they were most interested in, large majorities of respondents wanted coupons on big-ticket travel items, such as airfare and hotels.
Package deals and discounts on activities and food appealed to nearly one-half of respondents.
In September 2009, PhoCusWright and Compete reported that traffic and conversion was up year over year in most travel categories. Though travelers are spending less, they are neither giving up their right to travel nor ignoring Web sites that offer them the value they want. If you want to reach this growing number of thrifty consumers, it’s imperative you advertise your deals on your Web site and social media pages.
To see this article on emarketer.com, click here.
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