Cheapflights Ltd. ("Cheapflights" or "the Company"), a leading UK and North American internet media travel company providing flight price search and comparison has researched UK consumers' recent flight search preferences for all destinations compared to a year ago based on consumers searching its site for all destinations in May and June this year.
It is clear from the findings that currency and other economic influences are causing the traditional Top Ten destination patters to change. The UK findings based on the total number of page views* for May and June show that while New York and the traditional Spanish beach destinations maintain their Top Ten rankings, the Spanish Eurozone resorts, with the exception of Alicante, have largely had fewer people browse for flight offers. This is consistent with the trend away for Euro destinations noted by Cheapflights in April this year caused by the Euro's strength against Sterling. As far as the US is concerned, while the Dollar/Sterling rate is still at comparative levels to last year, Orlando has seen a 29 per cent increase in page views which has pushed it up into 4th place. New York, traditionally always at No. 1, has also seen an 8.9 per cent increase in page views by UK consumers.
London dropped by four places in the top ten with a 33 per cent fall in page views for May and June this year versus last year. However, the unusual 2007 spike in UK views for London may account for this year's significant percentage fall in London views. In order to verify if an actual down-trend has been established for London, Cheapflights compared "exit clicks"* for London expressed as a percentage of the UK site's total exit clicks for May and June 2006. The percentage of Cheapflights.co.uk's total site clicks for London in 2006 was 1.5 per cent against 1.1 per cent this year in 2008. Last year London comprised 80 per cent of all UK only destination clicks – this year it makes up only 77 per cent. These figures indicate that London is currently not as popular a destination for UK site users as it was in 2006 and 2007. This may suggest that reduced business travel to the City has occurred in May and June this year due to the economic downturn.
However, despite the weak dollar, Americans appear to have regained their appetite for the UK this year. Perhaps this may be because after three years, US consumers have grown accustomed to the unfavourable exchange rate. Cheapflights' US site's exit clicks for all UK destinations have shown a remarkable recovery year on year despite the weak dollar. Overall US clicks for all destinations in the UK have increased by 73 per cent with clicks for just London being up only 68 per cent on last year. Taking into account Cheapflights.com's overall traffic growth year on year and expressed as a percentage of all US site destination clicks, London was 1.0 per cent in June 2007 and 1.3 per cent in June 2008, a 39 per cent increase.
Dropping out of the top ten are Paris, Dublin, Paphos and Majorca, all Eurozone casualties. In April Cheapflights speculated whether Cyprus's move to the Euro in January this year would affect its popularity among UK travellers. While it is too early to see if a trend has developed, with a 13 per cent drop in page views Paphos is already out of the top ten for May and June.
Conversely, Moving into the top ten are several non-Euro destinations which are benefiting from cost-conscious UK consumers looking for destinations where their pound will go further on holiday because of more favourable exchange rates and lower local costs. Turkey's Dalaman therefore moves into eighth place with a 17.5 per cent increase in page views while Bangkok shot up seven places into the top ten at seventh position with a 46.7 per cent increase in page views. Dubai, while not in the top ten has climbed two places to 13th with a major 55 per cent increase in page views.
Commenting, Cheapflights CEO Chris Cuddy said: "Based on user activity across Cheapflights sites in North America and the UK, our statistics show that the top ten destination positions for both our UK and US sites have in the past changed very little year on year, especially in the USA. With the current issues facing air travel, it's therefore interesting to see the changes that are occurring as Cheapflights' users search for the best value flight deals on both sides of the Atlantic. While in the UK users are still searching for flights to their usual destinations in Spain at this time of year, where many may have favourite "repeat" holiday destinations, a definite trend appears to be emerging for alternative vacation destinations. Non-Euro places with a lower cost of living index seem to be gaining in popularity as well as the value for money USA."
He added: "In the US, as in the UK, traditional destinations such as Las Vegas, Orlando and New York are maintaining their popularity. However, last year with the Dollar at two to the Pound, London dropped out of the US top ten by eight places to number 15. Today though, even with the Dollar hovering near 1.98 to the pound, Americans appear to have declared travel is a necessity. Despite a major growth in Cheapflights' overall US traffic for the usual US top ten destinations, London has managed to rise to number 14 in the US site's rankings. Furthermore, other UK destinations outside the Top Ten are once again returning to favour with significant year-on-year traffic increases being recorded."
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All Destinations Rankings Searched for by Cheapflights.co.uk Users - May + June 2008
Destination +/- Page Views %
- New York Unch. + 8.9%
- Tenerife +2 =
- Alicante +4 +25%
- Orlando +5 +29%
- Malaga -2 -12.3%
- London -4 -33.2%
- Bangkok +7 +46.7%
- Dalaman +5 +17.5%
- Amsterdam -1 -16%
- Faro +2 -4.3%
* Page Views = browsing a destination for deals; *Exit Clicks = indicates strong intention to travel
Notes to Editors
CheapflightsLtd.: www.cheapflights.co.uk was launched in 1996. It pioneered the concept of online flight price search and comparison and has been consistently profitable since launch. It was the first UK dotcom to introduce pay-per-click in 2000, which helped to transform online advertising. Cheapflights publishes flight deals from airlines, budget airlines, online travel agents and the long tail of other specialist flight deal providers. Cheapflights therefore provides consumers with rapid, easy-to-use comparisons of approximately one million flight deals each day from the broadest online selection of travel operators. The site is valued by travel industry advertisers as a neutral, high-traffic source of quality high-conversion consumer leads. It launched its US site www.cheapflights.com in May 2003, which has grown rapidly and which now provides half of Cheapflights' millions of monthly visits by consumers. Its Canadian site www.cheapflights.ca, which was soft launched in April 2007, is already enjoying traffic of more than 180,000 monthly visits. Cheapflights' status as an independent online travel price search and comparison and travel news site makes it a natural starting point for finding travel deals and up-to-date travel industry information on both sides of the Atlantic.
