Report: Online travel spend pushing $100 billion

Travel is a hot topic around the globe, especially in the online space. According to data from comScore American consumers are spending much more of their travel cash online while travel-minded consumers in Europe are spending a lot of time searching the travel sites.

by Kristina Knight

For the first time, the US online travel spend has pushed past the $100 billion mark. According to new data out from comScore, 2012 online travel spending (US) hit $103 billion, a 9% increase over 2011 spending. Much of the online travel spend was accounted for in the air space; airline tickets are responsible for about 65% of the online travel spend.

The hottest online travel portals for US consumers include Expedia, Priceline and Orbitz; the three sites account for more than half the travel site traffic in 2012.

"Travel is a leading online commerce category, and despite being a pioneer in the sector 15 years ago it is still growing at nearly double-digit growth rates and remains very competitive," said John Mangano, VP of comScore Marketing Solutions for Retail and Travel. "With the online channel driving such a high percentage of dollars within the broader travel industry, understanding the competitive landscape is essential to determining the most effective sales and marketing strategies."

Meanwhile, in Europe, travel sites are gaining more attention as well. According to comScore European consumers spend more than 23 minutes on travel sites in November 2012; nearly half the European population (42%) visited a travel site. The leading travel-minded consumers are in the UK (40 minutes spent on-site), the Netherlands (33 minutes spent on-site) and France (28 minutes spent on-site).

Tags: comScore, ecommerce trends, online shopping, travel shopping, travel spending