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Crime Against Caribbean Travelers: Should You Believe the Hype?
Since the 1980s, the Caribbean region has been struggling against its own inner demon: crime. Citizens of the Caribbean have quickly learned that rising crime rates on one island can negatively affect other islands in the vicinity. While the islands...
Oldsters Overseas - What Seniors Pay for Travel Insurance
While travel medical insurance for senior citizens generally carries a higher premium and a lower maximum level of coverage it is still widely available. In fact, some carriers offer travel medical insurance for senior citizens no matter what their...
Planning your Trip using Travel Tips
No matter where you're traveling or whether you're traveling by
car, plane, or train, you'll want to make sure that you arrive
there with everything that you need. You'll also want to save as
much money as you can in getting there. If you're...
San Francisco Travel - Discover the Mission District's Murals
With over 600 murals, San Francisco streets are a parade of vibrant and radiant murals that are painted on building walls and facades, fences, garage doors and more. The colorful Mission District is the epicenter of San Francisco murals with the...
Travel Industry Trends and Predictions 2004
This article collects our thoughts about new trends in the travel industry and tourism markets, especially with regard to sustainable tourism. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, and is quite general. These trends are included as an...
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Online Travel Statistics
The Travel Industry Association of America (TIA) released their annual Travelers’ Use of the Internet study in December 2003. The study shows an increase in the number of people using the internet to research and book travel.
TIA found that 30% of the adult U.S. population (63.8 million) consult the web for travel information. These travelers spend (on average) $300 more on travel, and nearly 40% had an annual household income above $75,000.
Online travelers surf to two or more travel websites, spending an average of 37 minutes. They research and compare prices, check schedules and book trips. The number of people actually booking online increased by 8% over 2002 and grew to 42.2 million people in 2003. Within this group of online travelers, 32 million people made travel arrangements exclusively through the internet (a figure expected to grow according to the TIA).
10 million travelers responded to
email campaigns, causing the TIA to believe that email campaigns are stimulating unplanned travel.
TIA stated that the top 10 travel websites are:
Expedia
Travelocity
Orbitz
Yahoo Travel
Cheap Tickets
Hot Wire
VIPfares
Priceline.com
ITN.net
TravelNow.com
If your business supplies lodging, real estate, shopping, recreation, dining, events or tourist related specialty services, it may be wise to place advertisements with these websites. If you are not making full use of the internet for your marketing campaigns you are missing 30% of your potential market.
As online travelers’ habits become more sophisticated you will find them expecting to find and book everything from one location.
About the Author
MARKETING COORDINATOR and WEBSITE DESIGNER-Radha Khalsa, has extensive experience in the areas of marketing analysis, strategic planning and project management.
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