Good news day for Cheapflights, Lastminute.com, First Choice

PING! Press release from the Comscore web measurement service arrives with happy news for Lastminute.com, First Choice and Cheapflights.

The trio are amongst a list of the top ten UK web brands showing the strongest growth in July.

The top ten are as follows, showing monthly uniques and the shift on July 2006:

Odeon 2,618 (up 49%)
Lastminute.com - 5,172 (up 30%)
Facebook - 7,604 (up 26%) Well, derrr
Cheapflights - 2,801 (up 22%)
Disney Online - 3,190 (up 22%)
First Choice Holidays - 3,592 (up 19%)
Play.com - 4,753 (up 19%)
Next Group - 3,851 (up 18%)
Dixons Stores Group - 4,712 (up 17%)
WordPress 2,716 (up 16%)

Bob Ivins, executive vice president at Comscore, says this:

“The success of travel and holiday sites mirrors the seasonal trends in the offline world, with July being a popular month for holiday, retail and entertainment sites. However, with the weather in the UK being so poor this summer it’s clear that – for domestic recreation activities at least – people have been surfing the Internet for indoor entertainment, hence the growth in traffic to cinema site Odeon.co.uk.”

Would this have been the case a few years ago? Probably not. The lead-in time for holidays is shortening every year. Holidaymakers will happily wait until the last minute before booking. The shoddy weather just exacerbates the situation.

[Full press release featuring the overall top UK brands]

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

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