Students across Canada recently enjoyed a week off for March Break and Hitwise data indicates many left plans to the last minute. Last week, searches that included the words “march break” increased 4 fold compared with four weeks ago. While the exact week off varies by province, last week, Ontario students enjoyed their break, and Hitwise data indicate that students and parents left things to the last minute. The following chart illustrates the weekly share of Canadian Internet searches that contain the word “march break”.

I also checked HItwise data to confirm that Canadians still do favour the term “march break” to the American term “spring break” or the less popular”reading week” in referring to the mid-winter break. In the past 12 weeks there were 1016 search term variations for the term “march break” compared to 485 for “spring break and 79 for “reading week”.
The following table shows the top search terms that included the words “march break” in the 12 weeks to March 20, 2010:

The #2 industry category visited after a “march break” related search was Travel, receiving 14% of visits. From the #1 term, “march break 2010″ the top most visited site was the Ministry of Education – Ontario, followed by Toronto4kids.com, toronto.com and Red Tag Vacations. Analysis of the sites visited after this and other “march break” terms reveals that local options were popular this year, with city information websites featuring prominently among downstream websites.
While students have returned to school, demand still exists for last minute getaways. Among the top 10 fast moving search terms sending visits to Travel websites last week were:
- voyage a rabais dermiere minute
- last minute vacation deals
- billets d’avion
(For those looking for a translation, the first two are essentially the same and the third translates to “airline tickets”.)
Travel websites may yet see a lift from Canadians looking to get away for an early Spring break.