American travelers are taking a series of smaller vacations and are buying more travel products and services on the Internet, according to “The PhoCusWright Consumer Travel Trends Survey Ninth Edition” released this week.
“American Travelers Make Plans Online”
According to the survey, long weekend trips (defined as a three-night stay away from home) have become the most popular type of leisure travel. Leisure travelers take more than twice as many long weekend trips than they do week-long vacations.
“Long weekend trips represent an important opportunity in leisure travel and the online leisure marketplace,” according to Susan Steinbrink, PhoCusWright’s market research analyst. “And while long weekend trips potentially offer travel providers lower margins, they do offer more frequent travelers and trips to target.”
The less of a financial investment and shorter distance traveled for a trip, the more likely travelers are to purchase their plans online. Six out of every 10 dollars spent on weekend travel was purchased online versus less than three out of every 10 dollars for week-long vacation travel.
Close to two thirds of online travelers say that search engines such as Google and Yahoo influence where they purchase their travel plans and what plans they purchase.
A Web site’s visual features also influence where travel plans are purchased. More than seven in 10 online travelers said that a Web sites use of video, pictures and online maps influence their purchase.
