HITWISE UK TRAVEL UPDATE

Visits To Travel Websites Soar As World Cup Draws To A Close. Consumers Make Last Minute Summer Bookings And Plan Winter Escapes.

London, 12^th July 2006

The latest analysis from Hitwise, the leading online competitive intelligence service, reveals that with the close of the World Cup, UK internet users are turning their attention to summer holidays and winter escapes.

Summer is typically one of the busiest seasons for travel websites and this year looks set to be busier than ever, with visits to websites in the Hitwise Travel category up 8% year-on-year and up 15% in the past month. The internet giants are leading the charge with the share of visits over the past month up 23% to Lastminute.com, 27% to Expedia UK, 20% to TripAdvisor, 33% to LateRooms UK and 25% to First Choice.

“Despite the hype surrounding the World Cup and high hopes for England in early matches, attention of UK consumers does not appear to have been deflected from planning summer holidays,” said Hitwise Director of Research Heather Hopkins.  “Visits to travel websites have grown more rapidly in the past month than during the same period last year.  Given the flurry of activity in recent weeks, we are likely to see strong growth for the sector online leading up to the mid-August annual peak.”

Consumers search for last minute summer holidays and research winter escapes

Analysis of the most searched-for destinations sending visits to travel agency websites reveals that while some consumers are searching for last minute summer holidays, others are researching winter escapes to long-haul destinations, such as Australia.

The most searched-for destinations sending visits to Travel Agencies in the four weeks to 8^th July 2006 include Australia , Turkey , Tenerife , Cyprus , and Florida . The top search terms sending visits to online travel agencies in the four weeks ending 8^th July 2006, excluding brand names, were ‘holidays,’ ‘cheap holidays,’ ‘cheap flights,’ ‘flights,’ ‘travel agents’ and ‘package holidays.’

Source: Hitwise UK

About Hitwise:

Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Each day, Hitwise measures how more than 25 million internet users interact with over 500,000 websites across 160 industry categories.

By measuring more people, more websites, more often, Hitwise provides marketers with timely and actionable marketing insights on how their online presence compares to competitive websites.  Companies use this information to maximize the return on their online investment, in efforts such as affiliate programs, search marketing, online advertising, content development and lead generation.

Hitwise collects internet usage information via a combination of ISP data partnerships and opt-in panels, and complies with local and international privacy legislation as audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Founded in 1997, Hitwise is a privately held company, headquartered in New York City and operates in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. 

More information about Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.co.uk

For up to date analysis on online trends, please visit the Hitwise Intelligence-Analyst Weblogs at weblogs.hitwise.com.

For media enquiries, please contact:

Jannie Cahill

jannie.cahill@hitwise.com

Tel: 020 7378 3619