Cruise Geek

• 2 out of every 3 minutes spent on Travel websites are spent by people in the 55+ age group.
• Offline advertising is the genesis of 2/3 of all searches in the travel category.
• 39% of those searching for travel actually convert to travel clients - this is much higher than any other category on the Internet (other categories avg is 12%).
• Searching for travel online is a mainstream activity - 86% of all US internet users will conduct an online search using a travel keyword this year.
• The global potential of the internet is where the future is - North America is only 25% of the potential audience for travel products.
• 40% of all clicks to travel websites are from paid search results (Travel is the highest percentage - all other internet industries average 12% from paid results).
• 88% of Travel Category conversions take 0-60 days - this is the longest purchase cycle of any online industry. (Cruises take the longest, while airline tickets take the least amount of time to convert online)
• 30% of all internet users delete cookies (within the 60 day period) and evade most online conversion tracking used to measure Return On Investment.

I'll talk more later about findings from this conference, but with these stats we can once again show a strong tendency to really look at the internet as a mainstream way to generate qualified leads from qualified consumers in a quick and efficient manner.