Holiday weekends boost traffic to travel web sites
The web has become an important source of travel-related information in the days leading up to holiday weekends, Nielsen/NetRatings reports. For the week ending May 23, 41% of office workers with Internet access visited travel-related sites, Nielsen/NetRatings says. That amounted to 19 million unique users.
Among the most popular sites were travel aggregators Expedia.com, which hosted 3.3 million unique visitors, up 10% from the week before, Orbitz.com, which hosted 2.76 million unique users, up 39% from the week before, and Travelocity.com, which hosted 2.97 million unique users that week, up 49% from the week before.
Marriott.com hosted 1.23 million unique users, up 76% from the week before. American Airlines’ web site hosted 1.2 million unique visitors, up 23% from the week before.
The same week, traffic by at-home users to the U.S. Department of Energy web site jumped 32%, as gas prices continued to rise. Nielsen/NetRatings reports that the site attracted 345,000 unique visitors with 44% visiting the fuel economy page.
"Office workers are taking time out of their workday to book holiday plans. For millions of Americans traveling during Memorial Day weekend, travel sites serve as their primary tool for vacation planning," says Ken Cassar, director of strategic analysis, Nielsen/NetRatings.
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