July 25, 2007 | Wednesday

Searching sunshine on a rainy day -Marketing Week: travel, gambling, jobs, charity, property, dating

By Matt Brocklehurst, Head of Marketing in Latitude Publications |White Papers |Search Expertise |Search Research

What a miserable, rainy UK Summer. Little point planning weekend BBQs, picnics or evening drinks outside let alone a UK holiday. So what are depressed, damp Brits doing? No prizes for guessing. They’re searching to see if they can get somewhere hotter – cheap if possible.

We looked at some of the most popular search terms for travel for the latest of our monthly features in Marketing Week’s Interactive section.

One of the biggest increases, when comparing June ’06 to last month, was for the term “Cheap flights to France” with growth of 315%. Portugal wasn’t far behind with 310%. Those wanting a better guarantee of sun were searching on “cheap flight to India”, up 157%, whilst “flight to Egypt” figured a 227% increase.

Of course not all of this increase is due to searching for sunshine on a rainy day but it’ll be interesting to see how these patterns translate into increased flights this summer and how many Brits do manage to slip, slip away.

For the full table see the article in this week’s Marketing Week or download PDF.

Previously Latitude’s research for Marketing Week has included:

Gambling – “Number of searches by betting terms” MW 06/07 (Login required)
or download PDF

Jobs – “Number of ads by job type” MW 05/07 (Login required)
or download PDF

Charity: “The divine and comedy top the bill in charity sector”, MW 03/07 or download PDF

Property – “Online sites play their part in the search for property” MW 04/07

Dating: “Online dating booms as the search for love continues”, MW 02/07 (Login required) or download PDF