Zengenti research shows travel and hospitality websites some of worst performing

The industry dropped a place compared to last year's rankings

The travel, hospitality and leisure industry is falling behind most other industries in website performance, dropping one place in comparison to rankings from last year, according to new research from web experts, Zengenti. 

The firm behind the CMS Contensis, rolled out its annual Big Players, Slow Web Pages campaign, which analyses all FTSE 100 and 250 homepages to determine which industries and organisations have the best online presence and which currently lag behind. 

To create the research, Zengenti’s team collated the performance, accessibility and speed scores for each FTSE 100 and 250 company, before calculating and comparing averages for each sector.

It found the travel, hospitality and leisure industry came in thirteenth place out of a total of 17 industries, with an average performance score of 69, an average accessibility score of 74 and an average speed of 31ms.

International Airlines Group, an Anglo-Spanish multinational airline holding company, achieved the best results among its FTSE 100 and 250 counterparts in the sector, with an average performance score of 75, an average accessibility score of 79 and an average speed of 8ms.

The new findings come at a time when The Civil Aviation Authority said there is "still a way to go" for the industry to provide a smooth digital experience for all passengers.

Richard Chivers, co-founder of Contensis and chief executive officer of Zengenti, said: “This research shows how important it is to pay attention to and maintain your business’ website performance. Last year, media and publishing topped the list, yet the industry has fallen a staggering 14 places to the bottom three in this year’s ranking. 

“If your business’ website doesn't load quickly or is inaccessible, you will inevitably lose engagement and sales and can risk damaging your reputation in the process. For FTSE 100 and 250 companies, the impact of this could be critical.

“Yet, getting things right is not just important for a business’s performance. At Zengenti, we’ve always been a big advocate for improving online accessibility. We work closely with the Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC) to ensure our clients’ sites meet and go beyond accessibility requirements.

“Unfortunately, as this research shows, many industries still have significant room for improvement here - with the travel, hospitality and leisure industries, in particular, falling short. With the DAC revealing that 90% of disabled users click away from a website rather than report accessibility issues in 2023, there is no excuse not to improve. 

“As leaders in their sectors, FTSE 100 and 250 companies have a real opportunity to lead the conversation and ensure online accessibility becomes an integral part of website performance in every industry.”