Travel Search Trends: What Consumers Are Looking For

60% of consumers considering summer vacations have been looking into travel plans since February, according to Think With Google, but 46% hadn’t decided on destinations when they started researching.

Top Searches: Why Consumers Travel & What Types Of Trips They Pursue

Microsoft Advertising reported that reasons for travel vary, including family, fun, adventure and education. “Searches for family vacations, luxury travel and couples travel and honeymoons grew at least 3X faster year-on-year (YOY) than searches in the adventure travel and ecotourism categories,” Think With Google reported.

The most popular search terms in the couples travel and honeymoons category, between 2014 and 2017, were:

1. Honeymoon cruises for couples
2. Affordable honeymoon destinations in the U.S.
3. Places to go for anniversary weekend
4. Inexpensive weekend getaways in Georgia
5. Inexpensive weekend getaways in Texas

Within searches for family vacations and travel, between 2014 and 2017, the top five search terms were:

1. Best vacations for kids under 10
2. Inexpensive family vacations
3. Baby-friendly vacations
4. Family trip ideas
5. Family vacation ideas with toddlers

What Consumers Rely On When Planning

When planning trips, 95% of consumers looking for travel say they trust online reviews from third-parties.

What Trusting Online Reviews Means For Digital Marketers

Highlight your brand’s satisfied customer reviews so new prospects can learn from others’ experiences. Promote your awards, reviews and other rankings to evoke a positive and trustworthy reputation. Pay close attention to popular review sites and provide feedback to reviews – both positive and negative – when appropriate.

Where Consumers Research Travel Options

For family vacations, couples travels, honeymoons and luxury travel, consumers research more on mobile devices than they do on desktops. While searching happens on mobile, consumers are three times more likely to book trips on desktop computers, likely because consumers find it easier to input their information on a larger screen.

What Multiple Screens Mean For Digital Marketers

Make sure your marketing initiatives are mobile optimized and have a seamless mobile-to-desktop experience. From your website to your email communications, everything should be easily digestible on both mobile and desktop, so you don’t accidentally lose prospects who view your marketing in only one format.

Where Consumers Want To Stay

33% of consumers will stay in vacation rentals instead of hotels after seeing photos of the location.

What The Desire For Visuals Means For Digital Marketers

Add photos to your paid search ads and any other marketing initiatives your brand is pursuing. Visuals can grasp consumer attention and pique their interest in your products or services.

As travel searches pick up and consumers grow antsy waiting for summer vacations, be sure to optimize your marketing to reach the right consumers at the right time with the right message by understanding what they search for and what they need to take action.

Reimagining Your Travel Marketing Win?

Contact Digital Media Solutions today.

About the Author

Victoria Pallien is a Marketing Communications Writer at Digital Media Solutions (DMS), the fastest-growing independent digital performance marketing company. DMS helps its clients accelerate growth by deploying diversified and data-driven customer acquisition solutions that deliver scalable, sustainable and measurable marketing results. DMS performance marketing solutions connect the right consumers with the right offers at the right time to achieve the marketing objectives of our clients. DMS is continually innovating to provide new and emerging media and technology solutions that minimize waste and maximize results across the most competitive industries. Since its inception, DMS has demonstrated incredible year-over-year growth which has earned recognition on the Inc. 5000 list in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.

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