With no end in sight to winter and the charm of the ever-mounting snow banks wearing off, Canadians are turning to the web to book winter escapes. Visits to Travel websites have seen a sharp increase over the past two weeks. Canadian Internet visits were up 34% to Travel websites in the two weeks to 1/9/2009 (as illustrated in the chart below). Looking at the increase in visits to the Travel sub-categories we can better understand the drivers of that growth: visits to Travel Agencies were up 51%, Cruises websites 47%, and Destinations and Accommodations 45%.
Expedia.ca, which last week accounted for 12% of visits to Travel Agencies websites, experienced a 66% increase in visits over the past two weeks. Similarly, other leading Travel websites are seeing similar increases, including Air Canada up 54% in the past two weeks, West Jet up 69% and Trip Advisor up 67%.
Searches for last minute deals are proving popular, including “last minute vacations”, “last minute travel” and “last minute flights”. Popular destinations include Las Vegas, Disney World, Hawaii, Mexico and Jamaica. It’s no coincidence that these are all warm and sunny destinations! At the same, we’ve seen an increase in searches that include the word “ski”.