Travel Websites Attract a Record Audience in June
According to the latest figures from comScore, Google Sites remained the top Web property in the U.S., while the travel category welcomed its biggest audience yet in June.
An all-time high of 116 million U.S. Internet users visited the travel category of websites in June. The category claimed half of the list of top-gaining categories in June.
Travel – Ground/Cruise saw its audience of unique visitors grow 14 percent month-over-month, followed by Travel – Hotels/Resorts with 13 percent, Travel – Transactions with 12 percent, Travel – Online Travel Agents with 10 percent, and Travel – Car Rental with 10 percent.
Overall, Community – Pets was the top-gaining site category in June, as it audience increased 15 percent. This was followed by Retail – Sports/Outdoor with an increase of 14 percent. Retail – Toys also experienced strong growth in June, with an increase of 12 percent. Services – Incentives saw its audience grow 11 percent, and Health – Pharmacy saw its audience grow 9 percent.
“Summer getaways were clearly top-of-mind for many Americans in June, sending millions of people to hotel, cruise, car rental and travel agent sites,” said Jeff Hackett, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix.
The strength of the sports/outdoor retail sector reflects Americans taking advantage of the warmer weather with outdoor activity, according to comScore.
The top-gaining Web property in June was ABC Family, as its audience of unique visitors surged 255 percent month-over-month. It was followed by American Express with an increase of 41 percent, Dish Network Corporation with 33 percent, The Mozilla Organization with 24 percent, ImageShack with 23 percent, Groupon with 20 percent, EA Online with 20 percent, Zynga.com with 20 percent, UrbanDictionary.com with 18 percent and WildTangent Media with 17 percent.
Google Sites topped the list of the top 50 Web properties in the U.S. in June with 182.5 million unique visitors. Yahoo Sites followed with 178.4 million visitors, while Microsoft Sites had 173.6 million visitors.
Facebook was fourth with 160.9 million visitors, followed by AOL Inc. with 110.4 million visitors.
comScore notes that Amazon finished at No. 6 with 95.8 million visitors, a one-spot improvement for the e-commerce giant.
Disney Online hopped up eight spots to finish at No. 32, while Twitter.com jumped nine spots to finish at No. 37.
Google Ad Network topped June’s Ad Focus rankings with a reach of 92.8 percent. Yahoo Network Plus followed with a reach of 86.3 percent, followed by AOL Advertising with 85.9 percent, Yahoo Sites with 83.2 percent and Google with 82.2 percent.
There were a total of 214.5 million unique visitors in the U.S. in June, according to comScore.
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