How people in the UK search online for travel breaks

The number of people taking short breaks in 2009 fell by 13%, according to 'the Association of British Travel Agents’ (ABTA) Travel Trends Report 2009. The Association also noted that “in 2009, the long summer holiday was the big ticket item which was protected from cut-backs”. This suggests that as the recession started to bite and people’s disposable income declined, people protected their long holiday, but cut back on short breaks.

With this in mind, iCrossing’s Research and Insight team decided to look at the search landscape for short breaks and related categories with a view to sizing the current market and seeing how it has changed. We reviewed search terms relating to specific popular city destinations. In addition, we looked at three other break-related categories:

• Accommodation: to get a feel for the types of lodgings travellers were
  most interested in we looked at search phrases for accommodation terms
  regarding breaks destinations.
• Transport: to understand how people preferred to travel to their short break
  desinations we looked at location search phrases appended with transport
  qualifiers.
• Information: to investigate the ways in which travellers researched their
  chosen location and the ways in which they wanted to spend their time
  when there.

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