The staycation still rules as most US Internet users opt not to travel for the holidays this year. While 52% told About.com that, like in 2008, they would not travel this holiday season, another 24% said they were even less likely to travel this year than last.
The biggest theme for those trips still on for 2009 was spending less money and researching online more—two factors that are probably connected, since respondents thought Web research was the single best way to save on travel.
Money-saving attitudes, unsurprisingly, have an effect on what kinds of ads are most likely to reach consumers. Asked which online travel advertisements they were most interested in, large majorities of respondents wanted coupons on big-ticket travel items: airfare and hotels.
Package deals and discounts on activities and food appealed to nearly one-half of respondents.
In September, PhoCusWright and Compete reported that traffic and conversion was up year over year in most travel categories in Q2 2009.
“Consumers are certainly spending less, but they are not giving up travel, nor are they turning away from the Web sites that offer them the selection and convenience they value,” said Carroll Rheem, director, research at PhoCusWright, in a statement.
According to Nielsen, travel industry display ad impressions were up 28% between August and September 2009.
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Check out today’s other article, “Monetizing Mobile Content.”