Christmas And Ski Queries Start Rising In Late July

By Michael Wicks, Industry Analyst

The nights are falling earlier and X-Factor is starting this weekend. This must mean it’s the end of Summer. Surely too early for people to start thinking about Christmas holidays and ski season though?

Well, in a nutshell, no.





Graph 1 shows the seasonality of Christmas-related queries over the past four years, with the purple line representing the average. Christmas queries tend to increase in volume from around week 30 (late July).






However, as queries begin to peak, the average depth (number of ads shown per query, or auction intensity) begins to fall, as is evident in Graph 2. This is a common scenario across a number of categories; when query volume increases this is often because there are more distinct queries and advertisers are slow to take advantage of this.






The story is much the same for ski queries, which also start to rise from late July, rising steadily before peaking in week 2 of the following year (please see Chart 3). Average depth is fairly stable for ski-related queries, with a slight fall towards the end of the ski season.


So, the lesson for advertisers is that they should already be planning their Christmas and ski season activity, to give them a head start before the rush at the end of the year.

Seasonal Query Trends

In previous blog posts, we’ve looked at how queries related to overall Travel or particular Travel products vary over time, or in the build up to key events.

Our latest piece of analysis takes a look at the types of holiday queries that Google users search for, and how these vary throughout the year.

Key Findings:
• There are twice as many Cheap or Budget queries in summer as there are in the winter
• We get 3 - 4 times more Late or Last minute queries in the summer compared with the winter.
• The proportion of both Cheap or Budget and Late or Last minute peaks in summer months and declines in winter, accounting for around 15% and 5% of total queries, respectively.
• The opposite is true for Destination and Generic queries, where the proportion of queries increases in the winter and declines in the summer.
• In terms of volume, Destination and Generic queries account for over double those of other types in the winter. However, in the summer Cheap or Budget queries account for nearly the same volume as destination queries.
Examples of the different types queries used in this analysis include:
Generic: Holidays, holidays 2010,
Destination: Holidays in Spain, Dubai Holidays
Cheap/Budget: Cheap Holidays, Low cost holidays, Budget Breaks
Cheap & Destination: Cheap holiday in Cyprus, All Inclusive holidays Turkey
Late/Last Minute: Late deal holidays, last minute holidays abroad, late availability deals.

Posted by Rashad Sharif, Industry Analyst.

The Word on the Street - Travel

More videos! But this time we take to the streets. As the summer holiday season is now upon us, our Google on the Street Team have been out talking to consumers about their travel plans.

Last year, 1 in 3 Brits spent an entire day trying to find the best holiday deals online (Source: Greenbee.com survey, January 2009). Are consumers still as keen to find the best deals online now that the economy has shown signs of recovery?

Watch our short video to find out what they said in response to the following questions:
How do you decide where to go on holiday?
Do you prefer to book your holidays in store, on the phone or online?
How important is the internet when deciding where to go?
Do you use online videos to research your holiday?

think with Google: Travel Industry Leaders Share Their Thoughts

YouTube has long been a place to come to look for information and to connect with other people with similar interests. In the same vein, we have launched "think", Google UK's new platform for sharing business insights and viewpoints delivered in bite-sized, inspiring and actionable videos.

The channel has some of the UK's leading thinkers offering their insights on strategy, trends, consumer insights and more. Contributors already include EasyJets' Founder, Sir Stelios Haji-Loannou, and Cheapflights' Media's Global Sales Director, Francesca Essary, and many other inspiring people.



As always, viewers will be able to rate videos, leave comments and subscribe. The hope is that this will become a thriving business community in the spirit of YouTube – so head to the channel, listen to the thinkers and feel free to make your voice heard.

YouTube.com/think

Christoffer Klemming
B2B Marketing, Google UK

UK Travellers go online as the England team returns home

Last week we predicted around a 7% Week on Week (WoW) increase in Travel queries following England's departure from the World Cup.

Latest data shows that the week after England team's departure from the World Cup:
Travel Queries rose by +9% WoW.
Clicks on Travel ads increase by +15% WoW.

The fact that clicks on Travel ads grew at a faster rate than queries suggests that the consumers who are searching for Travel products now, are looking to purchase in the near future, rather than just researching holiday destinations.

These Week on Week increases occurred across all sectors of Travel. Flights and Hotels categories showed the highest click and query growth.

Rashad Sharif, Industry Analyst

Did the World Cup affect Travel queries?

Posted by Rashad Sharif, Industry Analyst.

Following England's departure from the World Cup last Sunday, I've attempted to quantify the impact this year's tournament has had on UK Travel queries.

Main findings:
• We would have expected 10% more queries and 8% more clicks in the past 3 weeks had the world cup not taken place.
• Package Holiday & Car Hire queries/clicks were most impacted, though all Travel sectors were affected.
• If 2010 follows 2006 seasonality, we expect a 7% increase in travel queries this week.
Estimates take into consideration: Current YoY average growth rates, 2006 seasonality, last year’s trends and month on month growth rates.

The graphs above illustrate the differences in growth rates as a result of the World Cup for each Travel sector.

England is Out of the World Cup - Here's the Silver Lining

While we may be dismayed at England's abrupt World Cup departure, the UK travel industry is gearing up for a surge in queries and bookings. We saw this behaviour during the last World Cup (see most recent blog post for the data) and a recent article on Travelmole.com is predicting the same. In fact, one tour operator saw a week on week increase in web traffic of 40% following England's loss yesterday.

We advise you to check budgets to ensure they are adequate for capturing the expected interest. Also, conversion rates are expected to rise as "lookers" turn into "bookers." Adjust bids accordingly to gain visibility for your advertisements.

Nate Bucholz from Google Travel UK