WASHINGTON -- Travel may be a hot commodity on the Internet, but
travel advertising is just getting warmed up, according to a new
research report by AdRelevance, a unit of Media Metrix in Seattle.
A key finding of the report was that intermediaries are
out-advertising their suppliers.
The report, which was based in part on the continuous monitoring
of 50,000 volunteer PC users, found that intermediaries accounted
for 87% of travel ad impressions in the first quarter.
Moreover, travel advertising, whether by agents or suppliers, is
highly concentrated. A handful of firms are doing most of the
advertising, and they are doing it on a handful of sites.
Overall, travel accounted for 3% of Web advertising during the
first quarter, putting travel in seventh place, just behind
software and telecommunications. And while travel advertising is
growing, the growth rate is lagging behind other industries, the
report said.
Among agents and intermediaries advertising in the first
quarter, two firms, Lowestfare.com and Travelscape.com,
accounted for 60% of the "share of voice," a measure of an
advertiser's impact based on impressions. Hotel Reservations
Network and Trip.com were next with shares of 11% and 7%,
respectively.
Although Travelocity.com and Expedia.com are thought to be the most active
booking sites on the Web, they have not been big advertisers.
Expedia ranked ninth overall with a 2% share. Travelocity did not
make the list, though its recent merger partner, Preview Travel,
was fifth overall with a 5% share.
Among suppliers, airlines dominated, with 41% of ad impressions,
followed by hotels at 19%, car rental firms at 17% and destinations
at 11%.
The top supplier advertiser, by far, was Delta, with a 23% share
of voice. Hertz was a distant second at 8%.
The data also suggested that travel advertisers are
concentrating their advertising efforts on high-traffic
portals.
Yahoo grabbed
fully 33% of the Web's travel advertising in the first quarter,
with three times the ad impressions as the second-place site, AltaVista. America Online was
third.
Overall, seven sites, all of them portals, accounted for 80% of
travel advertising. That's as highly concentrated as any industry
covered in the report. In the financial services sector, for
example, 80% of Web advertising was spread over 10 sites. In autos
and consumer goods, it was 19 sites. In the entertainment industry,
it was 27 sites.
The report also made clear that travel advertisers do not
advertise much on travel sites.
Sites dealing with travel, maps and local attractions attracted
only 2.3% of the Web's travel advertising in the first quarter.
Portals grabbed 55.5%, and community sites and search engines
attracted 16.7%.
One reason travel sites are not attracting ads could be that
there is not enough traffic. AdRelevance found that 61% of Web
users do not visit travel sites at all.