whitepaper_destination analysis q3 2011

8/3/2019 Whitepaper_Destination Analysis Q3 2011

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UK Travel WhitepaperQ3 2011: Destination Analysis


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Q3 Travel Whitepaper 2

Q3 Travel Whitepaper

UK Destination Analysis

Table of Contents

Table of Contents ........................................................... 2

Introduction ................................................................... 3

Summary & Recommendations ...................................... 4

Hotel Destination Analysis .............................................. 5

Domestic Hotel Destination Trends .......................... 5

Foreign Hotel Destination Trends ............................. 6

Full list of Hotel Destination Analysis ........................ 7

Air Travel Destination Analysis ....................................... 8

Foreign Air Travel Destination Trends ....................... 8

City Break Air Travel Destination Trends................... 9

IATA Airport Code Trends .......................................... 9

Full list of Air Travel Destinations .............................. 10

Holiday Destination Analysis .......................................... 11

Top 10 Holiday Destinations ..................................... 11

Seasonality profiles of top growing destinations ...... 12

Biggest moving Holiday Destinations ........................ 12

Country names as Holiday Destinations .................... 13

Full list of Holiday Destinations ................................. 14

Car Hire Destination Analysis .......................................... 15

Top Domestic Car Hire Destinations ......................... 15

Foreign Car Hire Destination trends .......................... 16

Car Hire Query composition and growth .................. 16

Full list of Car Hire Destinations ................................ 17

Methodology ................................................................. 18


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Introduction

Global Recession, political unrest, a lot of snow, two ash

clouds, and a rather big weddingwhere to start?

The past 24 months have been difficult for the UK Travel industry. After the initial low when the

recession first hit, 2010 was expected to be a better year. But between the snow and ash cloud

we never saw fruition of the peak season. By the time the snow storms of late 2010 arrived, we

were ready for a break and looked forward to a robust 2011.

January 2011 looked great, with a stellar few weeks and excellent query volumes and the

bookings that followed. Alas, that was short lived as sales ended and bookings dropped. Wil

and Kate had their wedding, Easter followed and everyone was offline as Google saw query

volumes dip. Some early good weather following Easter kept query volumes subdued and

before you know it, 2011 was half gone. The world experienced various political uprisings,

which played havoc in the holiday market, another Ash Cloud and a lates market that was

shorter than anyone ever expected. Here we are in October with our heads still spinning. With

all of that in mind, it can be difficult to know where to start to try and understand the behaviou

of British tourists.

This Whitepaper is an attempt to go beyond the usual trends and graphs that show the top leve

seasonality of the different travel products, and delve a bit deeper to try to help you understand

your customers and align your strategy to those trends.

Using Googles internal query data, we have compiled the top searched destinations per

product, and where possible, we have tried to understand the trends in light of other research

and publications available.

We have provided some details on the methodology used, and referenced any other material so

that you can look at both our data, and also the data that influenced our conclusions.

We hope you find the information insightful and useful, and of course, please share your

thoughts and feedback it is as welcome as always.


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Summary & Recommendations

Suggested actions resulting from this paper to help you

achieve your goals in 2012

Sub Vertical Key Destinations & Recommended Actions

Hotels

London: Expect 2012 to be a big year for London due to the Olympics. Wealready seen a surge in interest and January 2012 is likely to be a huge per

for this destination. Ensure budgets are uncapped for this busy period

Ad Texts are optimised with Olympic-specific call-to-actions to reflect u

intent towards domestic tourism.

Sharm El Sheikh: As stability returns to Egypt it is likely that interest will areturn to pre 2011 levels. Ensure that budgets will be adjusted for

traditionally popular holiday destination.

Air Travel

City Breaks: As the late summer season has truly ended, focus on city brdestinations such as New York, Copenhagen, Berlin and Edinburgh. Incre

CPCs on these destinations to ensure top positions during the Autum

Winter period when City Breaks are more popular.

Egypt/Sharm el Sheikh: Just as in the Hotels sector, interest in SharmSheikh in 2012 is likely to return. Allow for additional traffic thro

increased budgets.

IATA Codes: Search queries on Airport codes have increased five fold. Ensfull coverage of these terms and optimise Ad Texts to capture

opportunity going forward.

Holidays

Short Haul Destinations: Our analysis indicates that 2011 has seen a clshift towards short haul holiday destinations. Reduced disposable inco

and a weaker pound have made British travellers more likely to reseashort haul holidays than in 2010.

Sharm el Sheikh: Just as for Air Travel and Hotels, Sharm el Sheikh and Egare seeing renewed interest in late 2011, so allow for additional budgets

these destinations in 2012.

France: 2011 was a big year for Holiday queries related to France adestination. Allow for additional budget in January on this destination

direct traffic to high quality landing pages for French destinations.

Car Hire

Domestic Airports: Car hire queries related to domestic airport locatihave seen the greatest increase in query volumes YoY. Search te

containing destination names have not seen similar levels of growth.

Miami/Florida: Similar to trends in the other Sub-Verticals, Miami Florida have seen large increases in both queries and rankings YoY

destination should continue to perform in 2012.

Brand Queries Driving Growth: Branded queries have been driving majority of the 2011 Car Hire query growth, growing 19% YoY. Ensure

coverage of generic, top level queries which cover the upper levels of

search funnel in order to drive brand awareness further along the funnel

closer to the point of purchase.


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1. www.statistics.gov.uk2. http://www.hotel-

industry.co.uk/2011/04/mice-industry-

2011/

Hotel Destination Analysis

Domestic hotel destinations drive growth as overseas

travel numbers decline

Analysis of the top destinations searched for by users in the UK reveals seven of the top ten

destinations are domestic, three of which have seen double digit growth in queries.

Table 1: Top 10 Hotel Destinations

In August 2011, The Office for National Statistics reported a drop in the numbers of visitors

abroad for the fourth consecutive year since 2006.1The weak Pound (1 = 1.46 in 2009, but

only 1.17 in 2010), coupled with repeated disruption to Air Travel and political unrest in the

Middle East and Africa contributed greatly to an increase in domestic tourism. This is reflected

in the analysis above, with double digit growth in all but one of the top domestic Hote

destinations.

With the decline in visits abroad, we can see that London continues to be the most searched fo

Hotel destination, with queries growing by 51% YoY and accounting for almost 15% of Hotedestination queries. This growing interest in London is likely to be due to the onset of research

for accommodation for the 2012 Olympics. Edinburgh has managed to maintain its position, and

even grow its share of queries - this can likely be attributed to the citys focus on hosting

corporate events.2

Other notable movements in Domestic Destinations include Liverpool, Cardiff, Glasgow

Newcastle and Gatwick Airport all with double digit growth in queries and additional query

share YoY.

Table 2: Top 5 Domestic Movers

Destination Queries YoY Rank 2011 Rank 2010 Rank Change Size Share 2011 Share 2010

London +51% 1 1 0 100 14.82% 11.04%

Brighton +2% 2 2 0 24 3.58% 3.94%

Edinburgh +3% 3 3 0 23 3.34% 3.65%

Blackpool +1% 4 4 0 22 3.26% 3.65%

Paris +14% 5 5 0 21 3.11% 3.07%

Manchester +20% 6 6 0 21 3.10% 2.91%

Amsterdam +18% 7 8 +1 17 2.46% 2.34%

Liverpool +19% 8 10 +2 15 2.19% 2.07%

Bath +8% 9 9 0 15 2.16% 2.26%

New York -9% 10 7 -3 13 1.96% 2.42%

Top 10 Hotel Destinations Based on YTD Query Volumes

Destinat ion Queries YoY Rank 2011 Rank 2010 Rank Change Size Share 2011 Share 2010

Liverpool +19% 8 10 +2 15 2.19% 2.07%Cardiff +26% 11 16 +5 13 1.90% 1.69%

Glasgow +21% 14 17 +3 12 1.80% 1.68%

Newcastle +22% 17 19 +2 10 1.55% 1.42%

Gatwick +29% 24 27 +3 7 1.05% 0.92%

Top 5 Domestic Movers Based on YTD Query Volumes


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3. Published in September 2011 by HotelNews Resource

, a leading onlineinformation and knowledge base for

the hospitality & travel industries

http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/ar

ticle57895.html

4. http://www.hitwise.com/uk/registration-pages/quarterly-travel-review

5. http://www.failteireland.ie/Information-Centre/Press-Releases/2011/Dublin-

Set-to-Benefit-from-Growth-in-

Tourism-in-20


Amsterdam leads growth in foreign destinations, but New

York and Dubai fall behind

Looking at the trends in the top ten foreign destinations, we can see that Paris remains the fifth

most searched destination in the Hotel category for UK users and has seen a 14% YoY query

increase. Amsterdam is the second most popular foreign destination, ranked 7th

overall and has

seen 18% YoY query volume growth. The Hotel Rate Parity Trends Study 2011, identified

Amsterdam as the city with the lowest parity in Hotel prices when comparing offers on a Hote

brands website and an online aggregator. According to the research, for 80% of bookings it is

cheaper to book an Amsterdam Hotel via an online aggregator than via the Hotel brand

directly.3

Table 3: Top 10 Foreign Hotel Destinations

The decline in New York queries is surprising as Air Travel related queries for New York have

seen 70% growth YoY. It seems that while users are searching for New York flights, the same

cannot be said for Hotel queries.4 The strong query growth in Dublin is a likely result of theonline and offline efforts of Filte Ireland, an organization to promote tourism in Ireland. Even

though Dublins overall query share has remained roughly the same, it could retain its position

within the competitive environment of short-haul destinations.

Las Vegas has seen very healthy growth, which would be expected given the growth it has

experienced in terms of Air Travel queries, again discussed later on. Las Vegas is ranked 19th

on

both the Hotel and Air Travel Destination Analyses, and has seen double digit growth in both

areas, although a slight decline in rank in Hotels. Although not listed here, Sharm el Sheikh has

dropped by over 50 places to 103rd

in our rankings. We can attribute this to the political unrest

in Egypt earlier this year. Although the drop in hotel queries is quite dramatic (-45% YoY), this is

not quite as severe across other areas such as flights and holidays, which are covered in thenext section.

In Table 4 on the next page we see the entire list of the top 50 hotel destinations. When looking

past the top ranking destinations discussed above, the analysis shows a proportionally stronger

query growth for destinations with smaller market share. The data suggest that users are

becoming more and more specific when researching their destination and therefore driving

stronger query growth to smaller UK as well as international destinations. Advertisers should

ensure to meet this expanded query behaviour and cover a conclusive keyword universe fo

their underlying inventory.


Paris +14% 5 5 0 21 3.11% 3.07%

Amsterdam +18% 7 8 +1 17 2.46% 2.34%New York -9% 10 7 -3 13 1.96% 2.42%

Dublin +8% 13 13 0 12 1.81% 1.88%

Barcelona -1% 15 12 -3 11 1.67% 1.89%

Dubai -3% 18 15 -3 10 1.48% 1.71%

Las Vegas +14% 19 18 -1 10 1.47% 1.45%

Rome +5% 22 21 -1 9 1.27% 1.35%

Benidorm +22% 25 30 +5 7 0.97% 0.89%

Ibiza +18% 26 26 0 7 0.96% 0.92%

Top 10 Foreign Destinations Based on YTD Query Volumes


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Source: Google Internal Data based on

a bucket of Hotel related search queries

combined with individual destination

names


Full list of top 50 Destinations

Table 4: Full List of Top 50 Hotel Destinations


London +51% 1 1 0 100 14.82% 11.04%Brighton +2% 2 2 0 24 3.58% 3.94%

Edinburgh +3% 3 3 0 23 3.34% 3.65%

Blackpool +1% 4 4 0 22 3.26% 3.65%

Paris +14% 5 5 0 21 3.11% 3.07%

Manchester +20% 6 6 0 21 3.10% 2.91%

Amsterdam +18% 7 8 +1 17 2.46% 2.34%

Liverpool +19% 8 10 +2 15 2.19% 2.07%

Bath +8% 9 9 0 15 2.16% 2.26%

New York -9% 10 7 -3 13 1.96% 2.42%

Cardiff +26% 11 16 +5 13 1.90% 1.69%

Bournemouth +4% 12 11 -1 13 1.90% 2.06%

Dublin +8% 13 13 0 12 1.81% 1.88%

Glasgow +21% 14 17 +3 12 1.80% 1.68%

Barcelona -1% 15 12 -3 11 1.67% 1.89%

Birmingham +3% 16 14 -2 11 1.59% 1.74%Newcastle +22% 17 19 +2 10 1.55% 1.42%

Dubai -3% 18 15 -3 10 1.48% 1.71%

Las Vegas +14% 19 18 -1 10 1.47% 1.45%

Bristol +16% 20 20 0 10 1.43% 1.38%

Leeds +13% 21 22 +1 9 1.33% 1.33%

Rome +5% 22 21 -1 9 1.27% 1.35%

Oxford +19% 23 23 0 8 1.25% 1.18%

Gatwick +29% 24 27 +3 7 1.05% 0.92%

Benidorm +22% 25 30 +5 7 0.97% 0.89%

Ibiza +18% 26 26 0 7 0.96% 0.92%

Cambridge +16% 27 28 +1 6 0.94% 0.91%

Scarborough +11% 28 24 -4 6 0.93% 0.95%

Nottingham +17% 29 31 +2 6 0.91% 0.87%

Venice +10% 30 29 -1 6 0.89% 0.91%

Heathrow +6% 31 33 +2 5 0.80% 0.85%Belfast +5% 32 32 0 5 0.79% 0.85%

Southampton +21% 33 38 +5 5 0.78% 0.72%

Jersey +7% 34 35 +1 5 0.72% 0.76%

Inverness +6% 35 37 +2 5 0.70% 0.74%

Tenerife +14% 36 40 +4 5 0.70% 0.69%

Newquay -16% 37 25 -12 5 0.70% 0.94%

Harrogate +5% 38 36 -2 5 0.70% 0.75%

Llandudno +8% 39 39 0 5 0.69% 0.72%

Sheffield +21% 40 43 +3 5 0.68% 0.63%

Portsmouth +12% 41 41 0 4 0.66% 0.67%

Aberdeen +17% 42 44 +2 4 0.65% 0.63%

Windsor +16% 43 46 +3 4 0.61% 0.59%

Windermere +4% 44 42 -2 4 0.60% 0.65%

Majorca +23% 45 50 +5 4 0.55% 0.50%

Prague -23% 46 34 -12 4 0.54% 0.79%

Berlin -4% 47 45 -2 3 0.51% 0.61%

Madrid +13% 48 49 +1 3 0.51% 0.51%

Singapore +2% 49 47 -2 3 0.50% 0.55%

Malta +11% 50 48 -2 3 0.50% 0.51%

Top 50 Hotel Destinations Based on YTD Query Volumes


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7. http://www2.postoffice.co.uk/travel/travel-extras/travellers-checklist/travel-

tips

Air Travel Destination Analysis

Foreign destinations continue to drive Air Travel growth

Examination of the top destinations related to Air Travel shows that foreign destinations are

driving YoY growth, with New York, Malaga, Florida and Paris driving growth in queries.

Table 5: Top 10 Air Travel Destinations

The growth in queries for New York is most interesting, growing more than 70% YoY, and

growth in share of queries increased by almost 4.5 percentage points. According to Hitwises

latest Travel Quarterly Review, British Airways have grown market share in 2011, the majority o

which is down to increased traffic on New York and Las Vegas routes. Queries for Las Vegas are

up 32% YoY and share of queries has grown by 0.2 of a percentage point. 6

As discussed in the Hotel analysis, Dublin is performing well due to high visibility from

destination marketing organisations and has grown share of queries by 0.1 of a percentage

point. Although Hotel queries for Amsterdam have grown by 19% YoY, Air Travel queries for

Amsterdam have declined by 3% YoY, and share of queries has decreased by 7%.

City break destinations have widely seen strong growth YoY, and the Post Offices annual survey

of holiday costs indicates that costs have decreased in Dublin, Rome, Berlin, Paris, New York and

Copenhagen all of these destinations have shown strong growth in queries YoY.

Table 6: City Break Destinations with Decreased Travel Costs


New York +71% 1 1 0 100 13.67% 9.25%

Amsterdam -3% 2 2 0 29 3.91% 4.65%

Malaga +11% 3 4 +1 28 3.78% 3.92%

Florida +10% 4 3 -1 25 3.48% 3.66%

Paris +17% 5 5 0 23 3.14% 3.09%

Dublin +20% 6 6 0 22 3.04% 2.92%

London +15% 7 8 +1 21 2.90% 2.90%

Dubai +8% 8 10 +2 20 2.78% 2.98%

Barcelona +5% 9 9 0 19 2.62% 2.87%

Alicante +11% 10 11 +1 18 2.40% 2.50%

Top 10 Air Travel Destinations Based on YTD Query Volumes


New York +71% 1 1 0 100 13.67% 9.25%

Paris +17% 5 5 0 23 3.14% 3.09%

Dublin +20% 6 6 0 22 3.04% 2.92%

Rome +16% 13 14 +1 16 2.13% 2.12%

Berlin +18% 21 23 +2 8 1.13% 1.11%

Copenhagen +23% 64 73 +9 3 0.45% 0.45%

City Break Destinations wiht Decreased Costs7City Break Destinations with Decreased Costs7


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City break destinations on the rise for the Autumn/Winter

Market 2011

We looked at the seasonality profiles of some key city break destinations in Autumn/Winte

2010 and saw that peak queries peaked in October around half-term. In the graph below, we

can see that last year, New Yorks autumn peak occurred at the end of September, Edinburgh

shortly after that, followed by Manchester and Berlin. Copenhagen saw its peak in November,

making it the latest peaking city break destination.

A final note on Airport IATA Codes

The Hitwise Quarterly Travel Report made an interesting observation on the emergence of

Airport Codes being searched on more and quotes a fivefold increase year on year 8. We have

compared Hitwises findings and confirm that this is a trend being seen in Googles data , as

illustrated below.

As can be seen in figure 2 on

the left, queries related to

airport codes have grown

almost 5x over the past 12

months, with a significan

jump in May of this year.

this trend is to continue

ensure full coverage of Airpor

Code terms to capture this

opportunity

2011

City

Break

Peaks

Figure 1: City Break Destinations Seasonality Profiles

Figure 2: Airport Code Query Trends


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a bucket of Flight related search queries

combined with individual destination

names



Table 7: Full List of Top 50 Air Travel Destinations


New York +71% 1 1 0 100 13.54% 9.17%

Amsterdam -3% 2 2 0 29 3.87% 4.61%

Malaga +11% 3 3 0 28 3.75% 3.88%

Florida +10% 4 4 0 25 3.45% 3.63%

Paris +17% 5 5 0 23 3.11% 3.06%

Dublin +20% 6 7 +1 22 3.01% 2.89%

London +15% 7 8 +1 21 2.87% 2.87%

Dubai +8% 8 6 -2 20 2.75% 2.95%

Barcelona +5% 9 9 0 19 2.60% 2.85%

Alicante +11% 10 10 0 18 2.37% 2.48%

Orlando +20% 11 13 +2 16 2.20% 2.11%

Ibiza +17% 12 12 0 16 2.16% 2.14%

Rome +16% 13 14 +1 16 2.11% 2.10%

Sydney +8% 14 11 -3 15 2.08% 2.23%Las Vegas +19% 15 15 0 15 1.99% 1.93%

Edinburgh +32% 16 17 +1 14 1.92% 1.68%

Faro +16% 17 18 +1 12 1.59% 1.58%

Dalaman -8% 18 16 -2 11 1.53% 1.91%

Prague +2% 19 19 0 10 1.31% 1.49%

Belfast +29% 20 24 +4 10 1.30% 1.17%

Manchester -6% 21 20 -1 9 1.15% 1.42%

Berlin +28% 22 27 +5 8 1.13% 1.02%

Miami +18% 23 25 +2 8 1.12% 1.10%

Murcia +7% 24 23 -1 8 1.10% 1.19%

Venice +23% 25 26 +1 8 1.09% 1.03%

Nice -15% 26 22 -4 7 0.99% 1.20%

Glasgow +23% 27 31 +4 7 0.98% 0.93%

Bodrum -8% 28 21 -7 7 0.97% 1.23%

Toronto +15% 29 30 +1 7 0.94% 0.95%

San Francisco +23% 30 36 +6 7 0.92% 0.87%

Jamaica +17% 31 33 +2 7 0.92% 0.91%

Majorca +11% 32 32 0 6 0.88% 0.92%

Istanbul +12% 33 35 +2 6 0.85% 0.88%

Geneva -6% 34 28 -6 6 0.81% 1.00%

Lagos +9% 35 37 +2 6 0.81% 0.86%

Athens +9% 36 38 +2 6 0.78% 0.82%

Madrid -8% 37 29 -8 6 0.77% 0.96%

Manila +41% 38 54 +16 5 0.71% 0.58%

Lisbon +8% 39 39 0 5 0.70% 0.75%

Johannesburg +11% 40 43 +3 5 0.69% 0.71%

Los Angeles +7% 41 42 +1 5 0.68% 0.74%

Budapest +25% 42 51 +9 5 0.68% 0.63%

Marrakech +19% 43 46 +3 5 0.67% 0.65%

Cape Town -14% 44 34 -10 5 0.67% 0.90%

Perth +32% 45 53 +8 5 0.67% 0.58%

Vancouver -0% 46 40 -6 5 0.64% 0.75%

Newquay -4% 47 41 -6 5 0.62% 0.75%

Boston +7% 48 47 -1 4 0.60% 0.65%

Pisa +53% 49 66 +17 4 0.60% 0.45%

Munich +4% 50 48 -2 4 0.57% 0.63%

Top 50 Air Travel Destinations Based on YTD Query Volumes


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11. http://www.thomascook.com/holiday-destinations-infographic/

Holiday Destination Analysis

Malta outperforming Ibiza in 2011, while Hawaii has

several peaks throughout the year

Figure 3: Top Growing Holiday Destinations Seasonality Profiles

Sharm el Sheikh suffering after unrest in Egypt, while

Santorini, Gibraltar and Los Angeles are biggest gainers

In terms of larger destinations, the decrease in query volume for Sharm el Sheikh is most

alarming, but it has only fallen 3 positions in the holiday rankings from 15th

to 18th

, despite a

35% decrease in queries YoY and drop in share of queries from 2.31 to 1.46%. But while Sharm

el Sheikh is falling, Santorini is showing impressive growth of 53% YoY, moving up 9 positions to

19th

, and increasing share from 0.96 to 1.42%. Indeed, Google is not the only organization to see

this trend, with Thomas Cook citing Santorini in its top 11 Holiday Destinations for 2011. 11 No

included here but worthy of noting Gibraltar has moved 16 places to make it into the top 50,

ranked 49th

and showing 85% query growth, YoY.

Table 9: Ten Biggest Moving Holiday Destinations

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

Jan 10 Mar 10 May 10 Jul 10 Sep 10 Nov 10 Jan 11 Mar 11 May 11 Jul 11 Sep 11

RelativeQueryVolumes

Malta

Ibiza

Majorca

Benidorm

Hawaii


Sharm el Sheikh -35% 18 15 -3 18 1.46% 2.31%

Santorini +53% 19 28 +9 17 1.42% 0.96%

Rome +20% 20 24 +4 17 1.41% 1.22%

Madeira +24% 21 26 +5 17 1.39% 1.16%

Jamaica -15% 23 20 -3 16 1.32% 1.60%

Amsterdam -17% 24 19 -5 16 1.29% 1.60%

Orlando -6% 25 22 -3 15 1.26% 1.38%

Barcelona -2% 27 23 -4 14 1.16% 1.22%

Rhodes -13% 29 25 -4 12 0.98% 1.16%

St Lucia +64% 32 36 +4 10 0.83% 0.52%

10 Biggest Moving Holiday Destinations Based on YTD Query Volumes


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Country names as important as resort names for holiday

search queries

When we include country names the Destination Analysis, we see some interesting trends

Instead of Florida as the top destination, Turkey is by far the most searched for when with

more than double the search volume of Florida. Spain is second largest, with 20% more

searches. In keeping with the trends discussed on page 11, we can see that Spain has grown

YoY, albeit slightly. Given the strong growth in queries for Spanish resorts, it appears that users

are more savvy about where they would like to go. Table 10 below, shows the top 30 Holiday

Destinations and the impact of country names as destinations.

Table 10: 30 Top Holiday Destinations Including Countries

It is difficult to draw a solid conclusion regarding country terms. As with resort terms, some

country terms are growing and some are declining. Its worth noting the growth of France, Cubaand Australia; however, France has moved 6 places year on year, and has grown share of

queries by almost 0.7 of a percentage point a huge jump from a relatively small base. There

have been smaller but significant jumps of 2 and 3 places respectively for Cuba and Australia.

In Table 11 on the next page we see the entire list of the top 50 holiday destination. Similar to

the Hotel destination analysis, Holiday specific data suggest that the majority of growth is

triggered by smaller, more specific destinations. The data suggest that users become more and

more specific when researching their holiday destination; making it increasingly important to

cover a conclusive keyword universe.


Turkey -13% 1 1 0 100 10.69% 12.44%

Spain +1% 2 2 0 55 5.90% 5.89%

Florida -5% 3 3 0 43 4.59% 4.88%

Greece -2% 4 6 +2 37 3.92% 4.06%

Cyprus -7% 5 4 -1 36 3.90% 4.24%

Dubai -7% 6 5 -1 36 3.85% 4.20%

Tenerife +6% 7 7 0 35 3.73% 3.57%

New York -8% 9 9 0 30 3.16% 3.47%

Cuba +19% 10 12 +2 29 3.05% 2.59%

Las Vegas -3% 11 10 -1 27 2.88% 3.01%

Malta +28% 12 14 +2 27 2.87% 2.27%

Mexico +9% 13 13 0 26 2.75% 2.55%

Maldives -0% 14 11 -3 25 2.70% 2.74%

Ibiza +14% 15 15 0 23 2.49% 2.20%

Majorca +22% 16 16 0 20 2.17% 1.79%

France +52% 17 23 +6 20 2.14% 1.42%

Benidorm +31% 18 19 +1 19 2.07% 1.60%

Hawaii +22% 19 22 +3 17 1.77% 1.47%

Barbados +1% 20 17 -3 16 1.66% 1.66%

Lanzarote +3% 21 20 -1 14 1.55% 1.53%

Goa -5% 22 21 -1 13 1.41% 1.50%

Jersey +4% 23 24 +1 13 1.38% 1.35%

Mauritius -22% 24 18 -6 12 1.24% 1.61%

Gran Canaria +3% 25 26 +1 11 1.23% 1.20%

Zante +14% 26 27 +1 10 1.10% 0.98%

Bali +13% 27 28 +1 9 0.99% 0.88%

Australia +6% 28 31 +3 8 0.85% 0.81%

Sharm el Sheikh -35% 29 25 -4 8 0.81% 1.26%

Santorini +53% 30 44 +14 7 0.79% 0.52%

30 Top Holiday Destinations Including Countries Based on YTD Query Volumes


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a bucket of Holiday related search

queries combined with individual

destination names. These queries

consist of holidays to florida,

package holidays to florida, florida

all inclusive holidays etc....



Table 11: Full List of Top 50 Hotel Destinations


Florida -5% 1 1 0 100 8.24% 8.94%Dubai -7% 2 2 0 84 6.91% 7.70%

Tenerife +6% 3 3 0 81 6.70% 6.55%

New York -8% 4 4 0 69 5.68% 6.35%

Las Vegas -3% 5 5 0 63 5.16% 5.52%

Malta +28% 6 6 0 63 5.15% 4.16%

Ibiza +14% 7 7 0 54 4.46% 4.03%

Majorca +22% 8 8 0 47 3.89% 3.28%

Benidorm +31% 9 10 +1 45 3.72% 2.92%

Hawaii +22% 10 13 +3 39 3.18% 2.70%

Barbados +1% 11 9 -2 36 2.98% 3.04%

Lanzarote +3% 12 11 -1 34 2.78% 2.80%

Goa -5% 13 12 -1 31 2.52% 2.75%

Jersey +4% 14 14 0 30 2.48% 2.47%

Gran Canaria +3% 15 16 +1 27 2.20% 2.20%

Zante +14% 16 17 +1 24 1.97% 1.79%Bali +13% 17 18 +1 22 1.78% 1.62%

Sharm el Sheikh -35% 18 15 -3 18 1.46% 2.31%

Santorini +53% 19 28 +9 17 1.42% 0.96%

Rome +20% 20 24 +4 17 1.41% 1.22%

Madeira +24% 21 26 +5 17 1.39% 1.16%

Corfu -3% 22 21 -1 16 1.32% 1.41%

Jamaica -15% 23 20 -3 16 1.32% 1.60%

Amsterdam -17% 24 19 -5 16 1.29% 1.60%

Orlando -6% 25 22 -3 15 1.26% 1.38%

Paris +29% 26 27 +1 15 1.23% 0.98%

Barcelona -2% 27 23 -4 14 1.16% 1.22%

Cancun +10% 28 29 +1 12 1.00% 0.94%

Miami +5% 30 30 0 12 0.95% 0.93%

St Lucia +64% 32 36 +4 10 0.83% 0.52%

Rhodes -13% 29 25 -4 12 0.98% 1.16%Venice -5% 33 32 -1 9 0.77% 0.84%

Marbella +2% 31 31 0 11 0.88% 0.89%

Marrakech +2% 34 33 -1 9 0.76% 0.77%

Antigua -26% 36 34 -2 5 0.45% 0.62%

California +26% 37 40 +3 5 0.44% 0.36%

Guernsey -10% 38 38 0 4 0.37% 0.42%

Canaries +12% 41 47 +6 4 0.35% 0.32%

Dubrovnik +8% 35 35 0 8 0.63% 0.60%

Phuket -21% 40 37 -3 4 0.35% 0.46%

Hong Kong +17% 48 54 +6 3 0.26% 0.22%

Prague +14% 44 51 +7 4 0.30% 0.27%

Singapore +2% 39 41 +2 4 0.36% 0.36%

Newquay +8% 42 46 +4 4 0.34% 0.32%

Blackpool +12% 43 50 +7 4 0.30% 0.28%

London -16% 47 48 +1 3 0.26% 0.32%Florence -9% 53 52 -1 3 0.22% 0.25%

Grenada +66% 60 68 +8 2 0.18% 0.11%

Abu Dhabi +21% 51 60 +9 3 0.24% 0.20%

Gibraltar +85% 45 61 +16 4 0.29% 0.16%

Phoenix -27% 50 45 -5 3 0.24% 0.34%

Top 50 Holiday Destinations Based on YTD Query Volumes


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a bucket of Car Hire related search


destination names

Car Hire Destination Analysis

Domestic destinations showing largest growth in Car Hire

Queries

The decline in foreign trips in 2011 is very evident in the Car Hire analysis, which reveals that of

the top 50 Car Hire destinations, 14 are domestic and 9 of those 14 are growing YoY. Of the

remaining 34 foreign destinations, only 9 have seen YoY increases in query volumes.

Table 12: Top 10 Car Hire Destinations

The apparent overall decrease in destination queries YoY is concerning, and at first glance it

may indicate that Car Hire queries have declined as a whole, but we know this to be untrue and

have reported between 12 and 17% YoY growth in Car Hire queries in 2011, depending on the

periods compared. On the next page we have discussed the composition of Car Hire queries

and have determined the growth rates of the different types of queries, but for the purposes of

this section of the Whitepaper, we will focus on understanding the movements in destination

rankings.

Table 13: Domestic Car Hire Destinations

Looking at the movement in destination rankings, we can see that airport destinations in the UK

have seen the largest increases in both rankings and queries YoY. The only airport specific

destination to decrease YoY is Heathrow, but it has still gained 2 places in the rankings YoY.


Spain -17% 1 1 0 100 9.81% 10.70%

London -15% 2 2 0 57 5.64% 5.98%

Malaga -9% 3 3 0 54 5.27% 5.25%

France -16% 4 4 0 40 3.92% 4.22%

Cyprus -15% 5 5 0 34 3.30% 3.50%

Florida -9% 6 6 0 34 3.30% 3.27%

Alicante -9% 7 7 0 30 2.98% 2.96%

Orlando -8% 8 10 +2 22 2.18% 2.15%Faro -11% 9 8 -1 22 2.17% 2.21%

Edinburgh +7% 10 11 +1 22 2.16% 1.83%

Top 10 Car Hire Destinations Based on YTD Query Volumes


London -15% 2 2 0 57 5.64% 5.98%

Edinburgh +7% 10 11 +1 22 2.16% 1.83%

Glasgow +6% 12 12 0 20 2.00% 1.71%

Aberdeen +24% 17 21 +4 16 1.59% 1.16%

Brighton +38% 20 29 +9 15 1.42% 0.93%

Manchester -11% 23 20 -3 12 1.17% 1.19%

Inverness +23% 26 35 +9 11 1.11% 0.81%

Heathrow -4% 28 30 +2 10 0.97% 0.91%

Belfast +3% 29 34 +5 10 0.94% 0.82%

Liverpool +10% 35 43 +8 8 0.82% 0.67%

Gatwick +22% 37 52 +15 8 0.79% 0.58%

Dundee +54% 43 61 +18 7 0.70% 0.41%Leeds -11% 46 40 -6 7 0.68% 0.69%

Bristol -12% 47 41 -6 7 0.66% 0.68%

Domestic Car Hire Destinations Based on YTD Query Volumes


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destination names


Despite general decline in foreign destinations for Car

Hire, some clear trends still emerge

Orlando and Miami have gained in rankings (Miami by 12 places) while Florida, although

unchanged in rank, is placed 6th

overall. This is strong performance for Miami and Florida overal

when we consider the Hotel, Air Travel and Holiday Destination Analysis Miami has grown in

all areas with increases of 11 places in Hotels, 2 places in Air, and holding 30th

place in Holidays.

Table 14: Top Foreign Gainers in Car Hire

A clear change in search query trends

Table 15: Car Hire Query Composition and Growth

Looking at query composition, we see that Branded queries not only make up the largest

proportion of queries in the UK, but are also driving YoY growth. Destination specific queries

make up a significant portion at 17% of all queries, but these have only grown by 1.5% YoY. This

suggests users have started to go direct to Car Hire websites more than searching on generics or

longer tail destination terms. When we look deeper at the composition of Brand queries, we see

that Aggregator searches are consistently up more than 50% YoY, while Supplier searches are

only up 20-30%, depending on the period examined.

This change in query trends implies the obvious opportunity to align your strategy to userbehaviour: if you havent seen significant growth in your brand traffic, direct competitors have

and this is through ensuring full coverage of generics at the upper end of the search funnel

Generic queries drive brand awareness early in the path to purchase, and brand queries drive

conversions closer to the time of purchase. You can then utilise brand building platforms such

as the Google Display Network and YouTube to further grow your brand.

Another opportunity arising from this analysis is the clear growth in van related queries i

van rentals are part of your business, ensure this is being addressed in your ad creative.


Orlando -8% 8 10 +2 22 2.18% 2.15%

Ibiza +0% 18 19 +1 15 1.48% 1.33%

Dublin +4% 22 23 +1 13 1.32% 1.15%

Mallorca -0% 24 25 +1 12 1.16% 1.06%

Las Vegas +2% 25 26 +1 12 1.13% 1.01%

Miami +12% 34 46 +12 8 0.82% 0.66%

Birmingham -6% 36 38 +2 8 0.80% 0.76%

Dubai +7% 39 49 +10 8 0.76% 0.64%

Los Angeles -0% 40 45 +5 7 0.73% 0.66%

San Francisco +0% 41 47 +6 7 0.73% 0.66%

Fuerteventura -5% 42 44 +2 7 0.71% 0.67%

Corfu +2% 45 50 +5 7 0.69% 0.61%

Top Foreign Gainers in Car Hire Destinations Based on YTD Query Volumes

Query Type Offer Brand Airport Destination Van

Relative Size 5.34% 49.63% 5.37% 17.26% 22.39%

YoY Growth 1.36% 19.05% 5.71% 1.47% 7.72%


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destination names



Table 16: Full List of Top 50 Car Hire Destinations


Spain -17% 1 1 0 100 9.81% 10.70%London -15% 2 2 0 57 5.64% 5.98%

Malaga -9% 3 3 0 54 5.27% 5.25%

France -16% 4 4 0 40 3.92% 4.22%

Cyprus -15% 5 5 0 34 3.30% 3.50%

Florida -9% 6 6 0 34 3.30% 3.27%

Alicante -9% 7 7 0 30 2.98% 2.96%

Orlando -8% 8 10 +2 22 2.18% 2.15%

Faro -11% 9 8 -1 22 2.17% 2.21%

Edinburgh +7% 10 11 +1 22 2.16% 1.83%

Ireland -11% 11 9 -2 22 2.12% 2.15%

Glasgow +6% 12 12 0 20 2.00% 1.71%

Tenerife +0% 13 13 0 19 1.88% 1.69%

Lanzarote -0% 14 14 0 19 1.84% 1.67%

Majorca +0% 15 15 0 19 1.82% 1.65%

Menorca -3% 16 16 0 18 1.73% 1.61%

Aberdeen +24% 17 21 +4 16 1.59% 1.16%

Ibiza +0% 18 19 +1 15 1.48% 1.33%

Malta -3% 19 18 -1 15 1.47% 1.37%

Brighton +38% 20 29 +9 15 1.42% 0.93%

Australia -17% 21 17 -4 14 1.40% 1.52%

Dublin +4% 22 23 +1 13 1.32% 1.15%

Manchester -11% 23 20 -3 12 1.17% 1.19%

Mallorca -0% 24 25 +1 12 1.16% 1.06%

Las Vegas +2% 25 26 +1 12 1.13% 1.01%

Inverness +23% 26 35 +9 11 1.11% 0.81%

Crete -13% 27 24 -3 11 1.09% 1.13%

Heathrow -4% 28 30 +2 10 0.97% 0.91%

Belfast +3% 29 34 +5 10 0.94% 0.82%

Geneva -17% 30 28 -2 9 0.90% 0.98%

Jersey -11% 31 31 0 9 0.89% 0.90%

Paphos -14% 32 32 0 9 0.85% 0.89%

Nice -34% 33 22 -11 9 0.85% 1.15%

Miami +12% 34 46 +12 8 0.82% 0.66%

Liverpool +10% 35 43 +8 8 0.82% 0.67%

Birmingham -6% 36 38 +2 8 0.80% 0.76%

Gatwick +22% 37 52 +15 8 0.79% 0.58%

Murcia -28% 38 27 -11 8 0.78% 0.99%

Dubai +7% 39 49 +10 8 0.76% 0.64%

Los Angeles -0% 40 45 +5 7 0.73% 0.66%

San Francisco +0% 41 47 +6 7 0.73% 0.66%

Fuerteventura -5% 42 44 +2 7 0.71% 0.67%

Dundee +54% 43 61 +18 7 0.70% 0.41%

Cape Town -16% 44 39 -5 7 0.70% 0.76%

Corfu +2% 45 50 +5 7 0.69% 0.61%Leeds -11% 46 40 -6 7 0.68% 0.69%

Bristol -12% 47 41 -6 7 0.66% 0.68%

Turkey -28% 48 36 -12 7 0.65% 0.81%

Barcelona -35% 49 33 -16 6 0.63% 0.88%

Pisa -34% 50 37 0 6 0.57% 0.78%

Top 50 Car Hire Destinations Based on YTD Query Volumes


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Methodology

Discussion of how we analyse destinations to help you

understand this paper

Destination analysis has proven time and again to be difficult to conduct for a myriad of

reasons. To begin with, we need a list of destinations to analyse, and coming up with these can

be very tricky. Then theres the decision regarding what qualifies as a destination. Do resort

names, provinces, cities, counties, countries or all of the above count as destinations? Then

theres query matching for products. Long tail queries are very important, but where do we

draw the line? In additiion to head and long tail queries, we also have branded queries. But

which brands to include? All of these questions mean that there are differing approaches to

destination analysis, and most will give different results. Below we have detailed our

methodology so you can compare any efforts of your own, or of others, to our data and make

the most informed decision.

Unfortunately it is too difficult to classify every destination related query that is searched for onGoogle, so instead of this mammoth task, we have chosen to use a bucket of queries for each

product and insert destination names into the queries. The benefit of this method is that it

standardises the approach across each destination and ensures that the same queries are being

benchmarked against each other. The drawback is that some of the more long tail queries are

absent from the list, but this drawback is generally negated as all head terms are covered in the

bucket, and we find that usually, the trend of the head terms dominates the overall destination

trend.

In each table presented in this paper, the following metrics are used:

Queries YoY (Sum of Queries from Jan 1st

2011:September 5th

2011 Sum o

Queries from Jan 1st

2010:September 5th

2010)-1

Rank 2010 and 2011 Rank of the destination based on sum of queries for Jan 1st

to

September 5th

of that year.

Rank Change Rank 2010 Rank 2011 (Positive movement is seen as a decrease in

the numerical value of rank, i.e. from 5th

to 3rd

)

Size The most popular destination is that with the highest rank and largest

number of queries for year to date 2011. This is set to 100 and every

other destination is sized based on that top destination. For example

if London is sized 100 and Brighton is sized 24, then for every 100search queries related to London, there are 24 for Brighton.

Share 2010 and 2011 This is a variation of the size metric which is sometimes seen in other

reports, so has been included here. This metric is the share of al

queries on the batch of 115 destinations which we have measured

For example, if there are 1.5m queries for all of these destinations,

and London has 10% share of these queries, there were 150k queries

for London. As per Googles data sharing policy, we cannot share

actual numbers of queries.


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Q3 T l Whit 19

whitepaper_destination analysis q3 2011

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