Singaporeans look to fly more

Singapore – For every Singaporean that goes online, chances are one out of every four is surfing a travel site.

According to a survey done by digital marketing intelligence firm comScore Inc, nearly 1.2 million total people in Singapore visited sites listed in the travel category in January 2010. This is nearly a 50% surge from last year and an all-time high recorded for this category so far.

“In January, three out of five travel category visitors browsed two or more sites in the category, which suggests that consumers are being very diligent in comparing prices prior to purchase. Consumers are clearly being more cost-conscious these days, which is creating a more competitive environment among online travel agents and suppliers as they vie for consumer loyalty and share of wallet,” comScore vice president of Southeast Asia Joe Nguyen said.

The survey also noted some of most favoured sites for travel amongst Singaporeans.

Online mapping and travel guide site Streetdirectory was the most visited Travel destination with 475,000 unique visitors, up 33% from the previous year. Nearly half of the top 10 positions were occupied by regional and local airline brands. Tiger Airways was the most popular with 197,000 visitors in January, which is a 99% leap versus numbers a year ago. Qantas Airlines was second with 166,000 visitors, a 122% increase from last year and Singapore Airlines third with 145,000 visitors, up by 29%, followed by AirAsia.com with 137,000 visitors up 132%.

It was also found that 25-44 year olds account for more than half of the visitors to travel sites. Visitors aged 45-54 composed 19.5% and 15-24 year olds accounted for 17.5% of traffic. Females accounted for a slightly larger proportion of visitors to travel sites, representing 51.9% of visitors compared to 48.1% males.

Source: Marketing Interactive