Fueled by Strong UK Demand, Travel Search from Europe to the U.S. Up 20%+
NASHVILLE, TN – June 4, 2015 – nSight, the leader in online consumer shopping intelligence for the travel industry, today announced the top destinations for summer leisure travel from Europe to the U.S. With consumer search on travel sites as a leading indicator for travel bookings on third parties and direct channels through the summer, the top 10 U.S. destinations for summer European travel represent almost 300 million online searches from June 1 – August 30, up 23.5% over last year.
nSight captures millions of hotel searches and bookings daily across 5,000+ third-party websites worldwide, providing in-depth consumer insights based on geography, profile and search behavior to enhance target marketing and increase direct bookings.
At this week’s U.S. Travel IPW 2015, the leading conference for international travel to the U.S., nSight clients and industry experts discussed consumer shopping data and its increasingly relevant role as indicator for the dynamic travel market. Using predictive search data that reflects the real-time economic and social changes impacting consumer online purchasing behavior is the new direction for the travel industry.
With the Euro now coming into parity with the Dollar, trends from European leisure consumers to the U.S. this summer remains a hot topic of discussion among traveler leaders. nSight’s data shows that interest from Europeans for summer travel to the U.S. is very strong; early booking trends reveal that hoteliers are going to have to work very hard to convert this interest into bookings, but that the interest is available for them to do so.
Top U.S. Destinations for Overall European Search – Summer 2015
Orlando is the top U.S. destination for Europe travelers with demand almost twice that of the online travel site search for New York. East coast cities may be getting the brunt of currency impact on travel from Europe resulting in lower demand for Washington DC and Boston, and flat demand for New York. As booking windows close, it’s expected that these variances will begin to level off.
• New York tops 6 out of 10 U.S. destination lists for European search by country, coming in at #2 for the U.K., Austria, Ireland, and the Netherlands where Orlando ranks as the #1 summer destination. New York often places high as it’s frequently on the multi-city itineraries of international travelers.
• Tampa, San Francisco, and Los Angeles show the highest growth in interest by Europeans with 134%, 115%, and 88% respectively, compared to last year.
• Honolulu makes the top 10 U.S. summer travel destinations for two European countries, Austria (#9), and Spain (#10).
Source Market Distribution for European Search to the U.S.
The U.K. is the home market for the majority of U.S. travelers from Europe this summer, generating the majority of the searches for hotels. Demand from the U.K. for Orlando is up 28% from last year. According to the latest research, a renewed focus on the U.S. National Park system and its centennial celebration in 2016 (#findyourpark) and culinary tourism are key trends driving the growth from the U.K. Germany is the second most dominant source of travel intent to the U.S. with growing demand in particular for west coast destinations – Los Angeles (#3) up 10.9% and San Francisco (#6) demand up 20.7%, compared to last year.
The top persona categories for European summer travel to U.S. destinations are the higher income mid-to-older age groups, Adventure Seekers and Bucket Listers, except for travel to Orlando. In the case of Orlando, over 30% of travel intent comes from a combination of Europe’s more budget-minded travelers including Boomers, Young Millennials, and Families. Orlando reminds us that it has something for everyone, appealing to this wide range of demographics from the 66+ year old, fixed-income seniors to the highly social, recent grads and the deal-focused young families.
nSight is a secure cloud-based BI application that benchmarks hotel and/or destination performance on third-party websites worldwide. Its travel intelligence platform and predictive marketing insights provide an unprecedented view of how travel consumers shop online. Travel marketers apply this consumer shopping intelligence to improve decision-making, optimize rate, increase online bookings and grow share over competitors.
