Hitwise Intelligence - Robin Goad - UK

Analyst Weblog

Category Archives: Travel

UK traffic to Polish websites declining

May 28, 2009

Last year we highlighted the massive growth in UK Internet traffic to Polish websites, noting how the increase in visits to a custom category local and expat sites reflected the growth of the Polish immigrant population in the UK. Things... Continue reading...

Increase in traffic to train, bus and coach websites

May 26, 2009

Despite positive news from Virgin Atlantic today, there is no doubt that these are tough times for the airline industry. UK Internet traffic to websites in our Aviation – Commercial Airlines category (which is dominated by the airline's homepages) was... Continue reading...

Travel industry experiences decline in paid search

April 30, 2009

Last week I highlighted the overall decline in the UK paid search rate over the last 12 months, and focused on the retail sector in particular. I also promised to provide similar analysis for some other industries, so here is... Continue reading...

Google Maps visits up 41% following UK Street View launch

March 20, 2009

Following the launch of Google Street View in the UK yesterday (19 March 2009), UK Internet visits to Google Maps UK Increased by 41%. This was the busiest ever day for Google Maps in the UK, and as a result... Continue reading...

TV and Games are UK's most searched for subjects

March 09, 2009

For our second guest posting on the UK blog, I’d like to hand over to Richard Seymour, Hitwise UK Client Intelligence Analyst, to take us through some of the research he has carried out recently on UK Search Engines. For... Continue reading...

Snow and football transfers

February 03, 2009

Yesterday was the busiest ever day for weather websites in the UK. As the chart below illustrates, websites in our Weather category picked up 1.6% of all UK Internet visits, equivalent to 1 in every 63. And once people discovered... Continue reading...

Flight search and travel data update

January 15, 2009

After reporting a decline in flight searches last week in the FT and on our blog, we received a number of comments: on the blog post, via Twitter and elsewhere. Many of the questions have been addressed in the comments... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 11:30 AM | (1) | (0)
In Categories Economy | Search | Travel

Searches for flights down 42% on last year

January 08, 2009

UK Internet searches for flights have fallen by 42% over the last 12 months. January is a key month for the travel industry, as UK consumers’ thoughts turn from Christmas shopping to booking their summer holidays, but the economic downturn... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 11:00 AM | (9) | (0)
In Categories Economy | Search | Travel

Eating out: afternoon tea, listing sites and the MoneySavingExpert

November 14, 2008

Last month we published a blog about recipe searches and promised to follow up with another post about eating out and restaurant websites. Well, here’s the post and there’s a lot to cover, from afternoon tea at the Ritz to... Continue reading...

Exchange rates, currency sites and the strong Dollar

November 12, 2008

Following our post on the interest rate cut earlier in the week, we’ve been looking at the impact of exchange rates on UK Internet behaviour. For the last few years, people travelling to the US from the UK (and the... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 09:00 AM | (1) | (0)
In Categories Economy | Financial Services | Travel

Economic downturn benefits budget travel and cruises

October 29, 2008

UK Internet traffic to travel websites fell by 4.6% between September 2007 and September 2008, but certain sectors are thriving despite, or in some cases because of, the squeeze on household budgets. UK Internet visits to a Hitwise custom category... Continue reading...

Top Ski Resorts

September 24, 2008

UK Internet searches for ski holidays started to take off at the start of September and, if historical activity is anything to go by, they will continue increasing until Christmas, before gradually declining into virtual hibernation by April. One of... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 10:21 AM | (3) | (0)
In Categories Search | Sport | Travel

Fast moving search terms: LHC, big bang, Andy Murray and XL

September 15, 2008

The 10 fastest moving search terms in the UK last week were: 1. large hardron collider 2. hurricane ike 3. lhc 4. xl 5. big bang 6. tour of britain 7. itv f1 8. andy murray 9. black hole 10.... Continue reading...

Paid search rates by industry

September 09, 2008

We launched our New Search Intelligence tool in the UK today and, amongst other enhancements, it includes additional paid / organic search data. One great new feature allows you to measure paid search rates by industry, so I thought I’d... Continue reading...

Zoom Airlines collapse benefits BA

August 29, 2008

Zoom Airlines, the UK / Canadian budget long haul carrier, has grounded its planes and is preparing to go into administration. Following the announcement yesterday, UK Internet users flocked to its website. www.flyzoom.com became the 8th most visited website in... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 11:20 AM | (0) | (0)
In Categories Travel

Car hire / rental – search habits and top destinations

August 20, 2008

Summer is the busiest time for car hire companies, and this applies to their websites as well. We’ve recently carried out some analysis of car hire search behaviour in the UK, and I wanted to share some of the key... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 04:00 PM | (1) | (0)
In Categories Branding | Search | Travel

National Express: using the web to monitor a rebranding campaign

August 15, 2008

Yesterday we reported than almost nine in ten searches for the top 2,000 search terms in the UK are currently navigational / branded in nature. In our new Managing Your Brand Online report we show that a popular brand will... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 06:57 AM | (0) | (0)
In Categories Branding | Search | Travel

Superbrands: demographics and lifestyle information

July 23, 2008

The Centre for Brand Analysis released its list of the top Superbrands in the UK earlier this week, with Google taking the top spot after placing third last year. By looking at the profile of visitors to their homepages, we... Continue reading...

Postcode searches and SEO

June 03, 2008

One of the more curious and unexpected fast moving search terms that we spotted on Monday was ‘b78 3tw’. As you can probably guess, this is a postcode. Specifically, it is the postcode of Drayton Manor Park, a popular theme... Continue reading...

All inclusive holidays popular in a weak economy

May 13, 2008

The combination of a weakening economy, falling house prices and a rising cost of living thanks to inflation mean that many British consumers are looking for ways to cut their expenditure. Add in the impact of a strong Euro (although... Continue reading...

UK Polish Internet usage on the rise

February 20, 2008

Estimates as to the number of Polish people in the UK range from half a million to over a million. Mass immigration from Central and Eastern Europe has led to a rush for the ‘Polish Pound’, with everyone from multinational... Continue reading...

Paid and organic search trends

February 14, 2008

One of the most powerful Hitwise tools is our paid and organic search data. We’ve been analyzing this and have come up with some interesting trends for the travel and retail industries. Before I get into the analysis; a quick... Continue reading...

Ryanair website downtime

February 08, 2008

Every now and then websites have to be taken down for maintenance. Companies that rely heavily on their websites to generate revenue – retailers, webmail providers, social networks, media organizations – obviously try to minimize this disruption as much as... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 03:30 PM | (1) | (0)
In Categories Travel

Moonpig.com, Valentine’s poems and romantic breaks

February 07, 2008

Online card delivery company Moonpig.com is currently experiencing its highest ever level of UK Internet traffic in the run up to Valentine’s Day. For the week ending 2 February 2008, UK Internet visits to the website have grown six-fold by... Continue reading...

Yahoo! and Microsoft: UK perspective

February 05, 2008

Following on from Bill’s and Heather’s posts, I wanted to share some UK data on the proposed Yahoo! and Microsoft deal. First up: webmail services, and as the chart below illustrates, Microsoft has a dominant market share with its Hotmail... Continue reading...

Top Ski destinations

January 18, 2008

There were worries that recent storms in Scotland might cause the snow to melt too quickly for the country to have a viable ski season this year. However, looking at Hitwise data this doesn’t seem to have deterred ski enthusiasts... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 02:49 PM | (0) | (0)
In Categories Search | Sport | Travel

Long-haul travel searches increase

January 04, 2008

With Christmas over and the weather getting worse, at this time year UK thoughts turn to holidays in warmer climes. As you can see from the chart below, this leads to a seasonal boost for travel websites in January. And... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 04:00 PM | (0) | (1)
In Categories Search | Travel

Christmas market search trends

December 05, 2007

The setting up of a Christmas market just around the corner from the Hitwise UK office made me realize just how popular these seasonal attractions have become. According to Wikipedia, the first Christmas market was held in Dresden in 1434,... Continue reading...

Control, Manchester and Factory Records

October 09, 2007

Last week I was in Manchester for the excellent Manchester Digital conference. As a music fan, the city is forever linked in my mind with the Factory Records and the late Anthony H. Wilson. There have been a number of... Continue reading...

Cheap vs. Free

September 13, 2007

This week's Guardian Siteseeing column was inspired by Sandra's and Bill's recent posts on search value determinants. The main similarity between search behaviours in the UK and the other regions is the use of 'cheap' to search for travel and... Continue reading...

Bank holiday search terms

August 29, 2007

Well, who would have predicted it? We have terrible weather all through the summer and then on the bank holiday weekend the sun comes out. I thought it would be interesting to see if the weather had an effect on... Continue reading...

Posted by Robin Goad at 12:40 PM | (0) | (0)
In Categories Travel