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Informative Articles

Dublin travel guide
Dublin is Ireland’s capital, which finds a place for itself amongst the rich countries of Europe. It is located on the east coast of the country and encompasses the River Liffey merging into the Dublin Bay. Apart from being the largest city in the...

Expanding Travelers Horizons
Planning for retirement starts early in many people's lives with pension plans, IRAs and other financial planning schemes, but it is not until we near the transition into retirement that serious thought is given to what form and style this new...

Planning International Travel for Christmas?
Christmas international travel 475 [shudder]. No really, a little EQ - managing the attitude, and using the ole noggin' can make it almost pleasant! 1. Pack your patience and your Emotional Intelligence. Turn down the emotiong, turn up the...

The Ultimate Traveler's Day Dream Come True
More than a few times, I've caught myself sitting at work day dreaming about dropping everything and just jumping on a plane. In October of 2003, I did just that. Life can grind you down when you get in a rut. In my case, I had a particularly bad...

Travel Tips: Preparing For A Vacation In Africa
There are many new and exciting things to see in Africa. There is no way anyone could possibly see everything there is to see in one trip. This is why travelers need to decide exactly what they want to see before taking their trip so they can book...

 
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.