February 23, 2006

Winter Olympics spur "Italy" searches

Television coverage of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino Italy has included a good deal of footage and information about the surrounding region and Italian culture in general. Given this coverage, it's not surprising that Internet users turned to search engines to find out more about the country. The share of searches for "italy" was up 49% for the week ending Feb. 18, 2006 versus the week ending Jan. 28, 2006, reaching their highest peak in the past 15 months.

Will all this coverage of Italy result in a stellar year for Italian tourism? Search Term Analysis shows that the sites most visited from a search on "italy" are informational sites: the CIA World Factbook, the Italian Tourist Government Board, and Wikipeida. Travel sites rank lower on the list, but informational searches indicate that searchers are learning more about the country, and may be filing that information away to consider when they're ready to plan their vacations later in the year. Last year searches on "italy" began increasing in January and peaked in early April - what will happen this year?

Posted by LeeAnn Prescott at 01:35 PM

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