When Are Travelers “In Market?”

One of the great advantages of marketing through digital channels is measurability. Basic metrics like impressions, engagement, click-throughs are the building blocks for quantifying marketing/website performance. Broader analysis, however, is critical to understanding how travelers around the world use the internet to make travel decisions and how we can influence them effectively.

Brand USA uses clickstream data from comScore for a variety of insights. One of the first things we reviewed was the macro view of travel as it relates to the entire internet audience. As a seasonal industry, even a perfect message delivered at the wrong time is wasteful. As an “upper funnel” player, we need to reach consumers slightly ahead of peak travel shopping periods. It doesn’t make sense to send “visit the USA” messaging to a person looking at hotel prices in a city she has already decided to visit – it’s too late. Therefore, understanding when consumers are “in market” is an important part of efficient media planning. We use website visitation as an indicator of when a consumer is “in market” for travel.

Our analysis of monthly visitation to travel websites among all internet users shows wide variation across countries. Out of eight markets examined over a 12-month period, Mexico consistently had the lowest percent of total internet audience visiting websites within the travel category (19 percent). At the other end of the spectrum, the United Kingdom averaged the highest travel website visitation rate at 55 percent. This aligns with expectations, as the expense of travel limits the audience to wealthier households. Generally, established economies have the highest percentage of travelers among the general population.

While seasonality of bookings is clear, the seasonality of website visitation appears strong in some markets and minimal in others. Brazil displays some of the strongest seasonality with a high of 40 percent in March and a low of 30 percent in August. In contrast, markets like Canada show smaller seasonal swings, showing a relatively constant volume of active interest in travel.

So what does this all mean, what are the implications for our marketing? Essentially, evergreen (always on) strategies are key for markets that have constant interest in travel, while focused campaigns are more appropriate for highly cyclical markets. Some media types are more appropriate for evergreen approaches, spreading the investment relatively evenly over time, like search marketing and social media. Other media, such as television and out of home is better suited for campaigns, where the investment is concentrated in a relatively short window for a blast effect.