Holiday-related web searches have tailed off considerably. In February there were just 1.2 million online searches from UK consumers for holidays, compared to 2.9 million in November last year.
On the plus side, tour operators in the UK have been reporting a boom in holiday bookings to warmer climes including the Mediterranean. March’s cold snap is considered to be the cause.
Digital marketing agency, Greenlight, has released its latest holiday sector report. In it, holiday terms such as ‘last minute holidays’, ‘all inclusive holidays’ and ‘cheap all inclusive holidays’ contributed 55% of all holiday-associated queries.
Monday’s Search Spike
Over the weekend there were the fewest number of searches, with Saturday notching up the least. However come Monday, Greenlight’s research revealed how most holiday searches occur on Mondays.
Greenlight’s Krishna Rao hypothesised that employees might be seeking escapism, having just enjoyed two days away from their desk on Saturday and Sunday.
“Monday would seem to be the day that searches spike and around lunchtime,” she said. “Quite possibly a case of consumers being back at work after a weekend, with the start of the working week triggering them [to] have a look at what’s on offer holiday-wise.”
Dubai a Trendy Holidaying Spot
Dubai appears to be the most popular destination among would-be tourists. Search for volumes for ‘Dubai holidays’ and ‘Holidays to Dubai’ amounted to 26,000, which was a 7% share of holiday searches to long-haul destinations.
As for the short haul, Turkey, Malta and Cyprus proved most popular. ‘Turkey holidays’ was searched for 9,900 times, whilst Malta and Cyprus both contributed 4% of all searches in Greenlight’s study.
On The Beach appears to have been investing a lot in paid search media. It tops Greenlight’s charts for visible advertisers, paid media short-haul and generic holiday terms, beating high-street brands like Thomson and First Choice.