66% of US leisure travellers now use the internet to plan some aspect of their travel (versus 35% in 2000), while 56% now report making reservations online, according to a study by Ypartnership entitled National Travel MONITORSM.
Only 1% of travellers commence their search for a vacation destination by visiting a blog.
The nationally representative survey of 1,590 active travellers was conducted during the months of February and March, 2009, and is co-authored annually by Ypartnership and Yankelovich, Inc.
The study finds that US Travellers visit search engines such as Google, Yahoo or MSN first (34%) when considering vacation destination alternatives. The Web sites of specific countries or destination boards are visited next (23%), followed by online travel agencies such as Expedia and Travelocity (22%).
While the percentage of leisure travellers who report making reservations online has grown more than 37% since the year 2000, consumers' search behaviour has changed in recent years as people have become more familiar with search technology and the number of travel planning/purchasing sites has grown exponentially, according to Ypartnership.
Search patterns for selecting an airline or lodging accommodation are understandably different. Consumers who are searching for these travel services first visit the Web sites of online travel agencies (42% and 31%, respectively). Brand-specific sites (41%) follow closely when leisure travellers are selecting an airline, yet significantly less so when they select lodging (21%). Meta search engines that compare fares are visited first by over one-out-of-ten travelers (13%) when selecting an airline. (Ypartnership, May 2009)
