travel, hotel and booking Information

Travelers Drive At-Work Traffic To Travel And Airline Sites As Fall Begins

Traffic to Hilton Website Increases 65 Percent, while Southwest and Yahoo! Travel Jump 63 Percent

NEW YORK, NY September 27, 2004 Nielsen//NetRatings, the global standard for Internet audience measurement and analysis, reported today that travelers drove at-work traffic to popular travel sites during the week ending September 19. Travelers flocked online to travel and airline destinations to book reservations, view dividend mileage program information, and search for special Web fares.
The Hilton Website increased to 1.5 million unique visitors with 42 percent of its traffic visiting a secure page to reserve rooms at one of Hiltons hotel/motel chains. Traffic to Southwest Airlines peaked at 2 million visitors with 65 percent of the sites traffic being driven to the reservations Web page and 16 percent of the sites traffic being driven to the hot fares Web page. Yahoo! Travels traffic surged to 989,000 unique visitors with 12 percent of the sites traffic going to its travel guide as people searched for maps and researched cities.

Rounding out the top five fastest growing airline and travel destinations, U.S. Airways traffic increased to 754 million unique visitors with 18 percent of the sites traffic going to its dividend mileage program page where surfers learned about special offers about earning miles and preferred memberships. Orbitz.com saw an increase of 2.5 million unique visitors with 46 percent of its site traffic being driven by flight searches.

The dramatic increase in at-work traffic to these sites demonstrates that savvy cross-channel marketing and promotional campaigns attract a lot of attention in a very short time. said Corey Jeffery, Internet analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings. Capitalizing on these gains in the long term comes down to the fundamentals. In order to succeed in the 2004 holiday travel season and beyond, these companies need to stay focused on making travel planning more convenient, rewarding customers and delivering value.

Additional Nielsen//NetRatings Week on the Web:

Oprah.com Draws Web Traffic

Oprah.com spiked 66 percent at home to 639,000 unique visitors during the week ending September 19, according to Nielsen//NetRatings, as the season premier of The Oprah Winfrey Show brought brand new Pontiac G6s to everyone in the audience. Ten percent of the sites audience logged onto the 09/13 shows page to view photo clips and video clips of the show. Eighteen percent of the sites traffic signed on for audience reservation information.

Earthquake Shakes USGS.gov

The U.S. Geological Survey site received a 32 percent jolt in traffic during the week ending September 19 while Sacramento residents experienced a 5.5 magnitude earthquake centered at Qualeys Camp, Nevada on Saturday September 18. The site attracted 394,000 at-home unique visitors, with 41 percent of the sites traffic reviewing the preliminary report for Saturdays earthquake.

About Nielsen//NetRatings

Nielsen//NetRatings is the global standard for Internet audience measurement and analysis and is the industry's premier source for online advertising intelligence with its NetView, AdRelevance, @Plan, WebRF, LemonAd, MegaPanel and SiteCensus services. Covering 70 percent of the world's Internet usage, the Nielsen//NetRatings services offer syndicated Internet and digital media research reports and custom-tailored data to help companies gain valuable insight into their business. For more information, please visit www.nielsen-netratings.com.

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