Over the past few years, the online travel industry has immerged as one of the most popular and booming online industries. Search engines have readily become one of the first points of call for prospective travelers to research all their travel related queries.
In a recent article Jane Butler of Google alerted us to the most popular travel industry terms entered into search engines for 2010. Whilst most of the popular search terms are words such as ‘summer vacations’ and ‘all inclusive vacations’, the majority of users are simply looking for essentially one thing, the best deals and specials they can find online.
The 2010 online trends indicate that there has been a general increase in the amount of online research engaged in by users prior to booking online. Studies suggest that the implementation of mobile internet through iPhones, android applications and smartphones, have fuelled this increase in searching online. Users are also booking closer to their travel dates than in previous years, which may also be attributed to the ease and accessibility of being able to access an online booking agent anywhere, anytime.
Another online travel trend that was apparent in Butler’s article was the increase in local point-of-interest-based search terms used by travelers. The increased illustrated that 70% of searches on Google contain a local component. Users have seemingly become more interested in searching for local information around a destination as opposed to merely the destination itself.
For the full article visit Travel Agent Central
