MarketingVOX: Nearly three-quarters (73.6 percent) of summer travelers say they will use the Internet to help plan their summer vacation, according to a recent Burst Media survey of nearly 3,000 web users 18 years and older, writes MediaBuyerPlanner. Use of the Internet to plan summer travel grows as reported household income increases – going from 64.5 percent of respondents reporting incomes of $35,000 or less, to 82.9 percent of respondents reporting incomes of $75,000 or more.
The top choices for what visitors look for in a travel website were destination information (63.2 percent) and the ability to check flight, hotel and car rental rates/availability (60.6 percent). These were followed by travel promotions and specials (54.0 percent), travel bulletins and alerts (24.7 percent), chat/forum areas covering destinations (14.4 percent), the ability to personalize pages (14.3 percent), and an opt-in newsletter (10.7 percent).
Among respondents who will not be traveling this summer, 44.5 percent stated that they did travel last year. Within this segment, one-third say the price of gasoline played a role in their decision not to travel this summer.
More data is available in the current issue of Burst’s “Online Insights” newsletter.
Vahe Habeshian BIO
07.16.06
