From the changing leaves to shorter days, September marks
the end of summer and the beginning of fall for many North Americans. With the
change, family travel slows and shorter trips take over.
Travelers are planning
for client visits and conferences, couples hit weekend getaways, and people
plan early holiday shopping sprees. It also important to remember that
Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner when it comes to booking
transportation and hotels. So, sadly, it's time to put the summer books aside
and start planning for autumn activity.
We put our billion data points to work with Sojern's latest
Global Travel Insights report. Here are a few of the most interesting North
American fall travel trends.
Comparing the top five searched short-haul destinations in
April, May, and June to July, August, and September, we see Orlando fall off
the list, replaced by Chicago. Seeing Chicago rank on the top five list is
consistent with our summer look forward. And, with convention season starting
up, another stellar year for the Cubs and the expected 2,142 new hotel rooms
slated for Chicago this year, it's not surprising we see it on the top
five list.
The top destinations for both short and long-haul travel
remain steady from Q2 to Q3 -- big names in travel like Miami, Cancun, New York
City and London continue to rank as the top searched locations. Regardless of
season, the popularity of these big cities doesn't seem to cease.
Highly searched destinations can benefit from an effective
and engaging ad format to attract travelers. Consider native ads to do this.
They reduce banner blindness by providing editorial appeal, integrating
seamlessly with the rest of the content on the page and allow you to target and
reach your desired audience efficiently at scale.
In addition to taking a look at the quarterly data, we also
spotlight travel planning for the month of September. Looking at the top
overall destinations searched for the month, our data shows the majority of the
destinations are in the U.S. Our data also shows 81% of short-haul trips
searched are for a week or less, suggesting North American travelers are
searching for short, domestic trips in September.
By using real-time data, travel marketers can set their
campaigns accordingly. For example, run long weekend promotions to encourage a
longer stay, such as "stay 3 nights, get the 4th night free." Then,
not only does the guest stay an extra night, but you also have a chance to
upsell them to help improve your bottom line.
For more fall travel trends and takeaways, be sure to check
out the full report.
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Kurt Weinsheimer is vice president of marketing and
partnerships at Sojern, a data-driven travel marketing service with more than
200 million traveler profiles. Before joining Sojern, he held executive and
leadership positions at several travel e-commerce enterprises, including Orbitz's
hotel division, which he founded.