Fascinating and timely stats about UK travel and web use

There is something wonderfully (and, I admit, rather sadly) absorbing about Hitwise data - especially when they throw up the odd nugget or two of intrigue for the travel sector.

The month of March 2009, for example, saw the following 15 websites leading what the stataholics at Hitwise call its 'Travel - Agencies' category.


1 - Expedia

2 - Thomson Holidays

3 - Lastminute.com

4 - Thomas Cook

5 - Travelsupermarket

6 - First Choice

7 - Travelrepublic

8 - Cheapflights

9 - OnTheBeach

10 - Skyscanner

11 - Teletext Holidays

12 - Opodo UK

13 - Directline Holidays

14 - Travelzoo UK

15 - Holiday Extras


To give you an idea of the range, Expedia commands a sturdy 9.17% share, Holiday Extras with 1.30%.

Perhaps two things to note here are the heady heights in which OnTheBeach now finds itself, and the absence of Kayak and Ebookers.

Moving on...

Perhaps more interesting are the figures showing the top 15 sites for upstream share into that same 'Travel - Agencies' category. In other words: the sites users are hanging out on before heading off to the sites listed above.

And now the data (for the month of February 2009) becomes absolutely fascinating.


1 - Google UK (29.26%)

2 - Google (4.95%)

3 - Tripadvisor (1.78%)

4 - Facebook (1.52%)

5 - Travelsupermarket (1.48%)

6 - Cheapflights (1.42%)

7 - Tripadvisor UK (1.33%)

8 - Yahoo Search UK & Ireland (1.27%)

9 - Thomson Holidays (1.05%)

10 - Windows Live Mail (0.96%

11 - Expedia UK (0.87%)

12 - Thomas Cook (0.85%)

13 - Yahoo Mail UK & Ireland (0.71%)

14 - First Choice (0.70%)

15 - Ask UK (0.69%)


No surprises at all that Google's combined influence reaches almost 30%.

And feathers in the caps of both Travelsupermarket and Cheapflights, which some might say are doing their job of aggregating products for users very well and are clearly important distribution channels.

The position of Tripadvisor as the third highest upstream referrer is showing, if the industry didn't already know, how important it has become in the food chain.

But the placing of Facebook is of critical importance - but, equally, must be confusing - for the travel industry.

Clearly the ubiquitous social network plays an important part in the internet usage of millions of consumers, but the question marks that many have over it as an advertising channel (members are in networking mode, not buying mode) put it in the unique position of being incredibly popular but incredibly frustrating for brands.

In short: how do brands harness that interaction because the evidence illustrates that many consumers are using Facebook at exactly the point prior to them heading off to a travel website?

Another table we have shows the top 15 sites for upstream share into the 'Aviation - Commercial Airlines' category.

Once again, the data (for the week ending 2 February 2009) is extremely interesting:


1 - Google UK (29.04%)

2 - Google (5.71%)

3 - Windows Live Mail (2.86%)

4 - EasyJet (2.49%)

5 - Cheapflights (1.94%)

6 - Thomson Holidays (1.78%)

7 - Ryanair (1.63%)

8 - Yahoo Search UK & Ireland (1.37%)

9 - Travelsupermarket (1.35%)

10 - MSN UK (1.12%)

11 - BMIBaby (1.08%)

12 - Yahoo Mail UK & Ireland (1.07%)

13 - Skyscanner (1.06%)

14 - Ebay UK (0.98%)

15 - British Airways (0.94%)


Once again, unsurprisingly, Google's UK and other dot-com sites are generating huge levels of traffic to the airline category.

But the data also indicates a number of other things.

Firstly is the potentially how influential an ad campaign for targeting consumers when they are using their email web services could be - Thomas Cook's recent deal with Microsoft is testament to that.

Most would agree that the consumer is probably far more discerning this year than ever before as they check prices on a number of sites before making that final decision to buy.

One thing which has confused us a little is the relatively high positions of easyJet and Ryanair. Could consumers be dissatisfied with what they are finding on the sites and heading off elsewhere? Or just being more astute during the purchase funnel?

And, lest we forget, is the position of eBay. There was plenty of talk a few years ago about its role in travel (plans which never really came to fruition), and here it is again as a top place where consumers are browsing, before heading off to one of the major airline sites.

The final table shows the downstream share for the month of February 2009 from Cheapflights.co.uk (where users are going after visiting the price comparison site).


1 - Kayak UK (9.82%)

2 - Opodo UK (8.13%)

3 - Travelrepublic (5.78%)

4 - Ebookers (5.64%)

5 - British Airways (3.79%)

6 - Netflights (3.51%)

7 - FlyThomasCook (2.47%)

8 - Virgin Atlantic (2.17%)

9 - BMI (2.13%)

10 - Travelsupermarket (2.02%)

11 - Flydeals (1.82%)

12 - Expedia UK (1.71%)

13 - Monarch Airlines (1.71%)

14 - KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (1.55%)

15 - Flybe (1.48%)


We do not have any information to show which of these sites spend money - and how much they spend - with Cheapflights (although one suspects almost all do).

But who would have thought that Kayak is the single largest beneficiary of outbound traffic from the site, as opposed to an OTA or airline?

We would welcome any thoughts or further analysis you have on any of the above.

Number crunching over...