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Volcanic ash cloud: online travel impact
April 19, 2010
Last week UK Internet users searched for over 10,000 different searches containing the word ‘volcano’, up from less than 1,000 the previous week. The reason for this surge was the volcanic eruption in Iceland that has caused travel chaos across Northern Europe. As the chart below illustrates, UK Internet visits to Aviation websites (a category which includes both airline and airport homepages) increased by 45% last week. Interestingly, however, there wasn’t a noticeable spike in visits to Weather websites.
The table below lists the 20 fastest moving search terms within the Travel industry, and it’s dominated by Aviation terms. There are seven airport related terms in the list: Manchester, Heathrow, Gatwick, Glasgow, Newcastle, Bristol and Luton.
The top non-aviation fast moving travel search term was ‘eurostar’, and UK Internet visits Eurostar.com increased by 67% last week. In France, traffic increased by 22%. The other two transport areas to benefit from the flight cancellations were ferry companies (traffic to the industry was up 59% last week) and car hire provides (up 9%).
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Posted by Robin Goad at 11:29 AM
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In Categories Automotive | Economy | Environment | Fast moving search terms | Search | Travel | Weather
Comments
That is so interesting how one change in the weather can cause so much ruckus! Just putting it out there, if you ever need to ship a yacht or boat, look up Yacht Exports. They did a real quality job with me!
Posted by howard keller | April 22, 2010 10:31 PM
Any insight into what happened to the Ferries over the same period? Presumably a more positive message for them?
Posted by Dixon Jones | April 30, 2010 01:51 PM
Wow I didn't realize that volcano ash could spread that far! It makes me even feel better that I don't live near one.
Posted by Boat Transport | February 2, 2011 06:54 PM
Are you going to do any analysis on the fast moving 'ash cloud' related terms that I'm sure have been searched for recently :)
Posted by Dom Parker | April 20, 2010 10:10 PM