• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, August 12, 2011

According to recent Nielsen data, U.S. travelers of all ages are in the midst of the hottest travel season, visiting a variety of travel sites to research and plan their destinations. Internet users aged 18-34, "Young Road Warriors" the report says, prefer driving to their chosen destination, and are more likely to visit Ground Transportation and Maps/Travel Info sites than they are any other category of travel websites. 

This group makes up nearly 30% of the visitors to both types of sites, which is 13% higher than their Internet average (25%). This group is least likely browse Cruise Lines and Airlines sites, accounting for only 25% and 20% of these sites' visitors, respectively.

Destination sites (Walt Disney World, Six Flags, etc.) and Hotel/Hotel Directory sites have a high concentration of Internet users aged 35-49.  "Family Fans," coined by the report, make up over a third of visitors to these sites and are more likely to visit a Destination or Hotel/Hotel Directory site than any other age group (34% and 32% more likely, respectively).  They are more likely to round everyone up and head out in the family car than fly.

Internet users aged 50+, "Senior Sailors," account for almost half of the unique visitors to Cruise Lines sites.  This is 45% above the Internet average (33%) making them the most likely of all age groups to visit Cruise Line sites.  The next most popular type of travel site among this group is Airlines, where Internet users over 50 make up 41% of the audience to these sites, 27% above the Internet Average.

Index of Unique Internet Using U.S. Travelers (June 2011 / Home & Work Computers)
Travel	Internet Users; Travel Index
	Age 18-34 Young Road Warriors	Age 35-48 Family Fans	Age 50+ Senior Sailers
Airlines	98	120	127
Cruise lines	82	111	145
Destinations	108	134	99
Ground transportation	113	127	109
Hotels/directories	103	132	111
Maps/travel info	113	115	104
Source: Nielsen (Read: Age 18-34 group were less likely than average to visit airline sites)

Visits across all reported categories of travel sites spike in January and then again during the summer months of June and July. Americans may be opting to drive to their destinations instead of flying as the cost of air travel continues to rise. The number of unique visitors to Ground Transportation sites has remained steady over the past two years while Airline sites have seen a 24% decrease in visitors over the same period.

Visits to travel sites have increased over the last two years (+2%), with multi-category travel sites seeing the largest growth in visitors since June 2009 (+7%).

Adult Internet users who recently made an online travel purchase are over twice as likely than the average adult online to be heavy spenders on hotel reservations (Index 273), airline tickets (Index 266) and vacation packages (Index 288).

Once they have reached their final destination, top vacation activities include visiting family and friends (38%), going to the beach (26%) and camping (16%).

For additional information from Nielsen, please visit here.