Online searches for flights during the week after Christmas dropped by 42 percent compared to the previous year.

Published: 09 Jan 2009

Online searches for flights during the week after Christmas dropped by 42 percent compared to the previous year.

According to Hitwise, a division of Experian, the week ending January 3 saw a 42 percent decline in web searches by UK Internet users for flights compared with the same week last year. Traffic to travel websites fell by 16 percent in the same period.

Robin Goad, from Experian, told the FT: "January is the big peak for traffic to travel websites and obviously the web is the primary sales channel for travel companies now, so it's very important what happens in January."

"There's always a big spike in traffic after Christmas and there was a big spike in searches last week, but when you look at it year-on-year, in general people are searching less for flights. It's a significant drop."

Goad added that the data indicated that would-be travellers were being deterred by the weakness of the pound.

"The euro in particular has been strong relative to the pound and we are definitely seeing a greater decline in searches for flights to the eurozone and the US, while some of the other destinations in the rest of the world seem to be doing better," he said.

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