More than 40% of the UK’s travel will be booked online this year, according to shopping site Kelkoo’s latest city index.
Online travel to grow 13% in 2010
More than 40% of the UK’s travel will be booked online this year, according to shopping site Kelkoo’s latest city index.
The consumer-facing release included a “travel outlook” section, which found that travel expenditure is expected to reach £41.1bn or £669 per person in 2010. This is only £1bn up on 2009 and remains below pre-recession levels.
However, online travel continues to grow despite the slowdown. Kelkoo estimates that online travel bookings this year will be worth £17.6bn, 13% ahead of 2009. Online bookings will account for 42.8% of all UK travel spend.
The consumer angle of the index is based around what Kelkoo identifies as the top ten priorities for British travellers looking specifically for city breaks. It found that 85% of Brits said affordability is their “number one city break holiday clincher”, followed closely by security (81%), the weather (78%), and good food (77%).
Kelkoo then combined the findings from its research with a variety of publicly available statistics to work out which destinations should be leading the way. Lisbon “should be the number one city break destination for UK travellers this year,” it claims.
Kelkoo was formerly owned by search giant Yahoo, which sold the price comparison site to UK private equity house Jamplant in October 2008. Techcrunch reported at the time that the price paid was “something less than €100m”.
