• by December 19, 2001

Jupiter Media Metrix today reported that online travel advertising has soared in 2001, despite a major setback following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

According to data from Jupiter Media Metrix' AdRelevance service, online advertising for the travel industry began a sharp increase the second week of May 2001 with 291.9 million impressions and peaked in the fourth week of August with 1.1 billion impressions - a 263% increase. While impressions plummeted during the second week of September and bottomed out at 574.4 million during the first week of October, the industry has since returned to 94% of its pre-Sept. 11 levels.

"The early 2001 launch of Orbitz.com put a surge into travel advertising, with the industry more than doubling between the spring and the end of summer," said Charles Buchwalter, VP of media research at JMM. "However, the industry took a major hit on Sept. 11, as travel companies halted advertising out of respect for the victims, as well as to promote disaster relief efforts. But the sector has showed incredible resiliency as booking services and airlines have turned to the Web to reach out to consumers during the busy holiday season."

Among the top ten online travel advertisers - ranked according to their share of total travel impressions for the week ending Dec. 2, 2001 – four are online agencies, making up 64% of the market, and three are airlines, making up 6%. The top advertisers are: Orbitz with 44% of the travel market, Travelocity with 13% and Hotwire with 5%.

Retail Advertising Sluggish in 2001

JMM reports that while most of this year's major online advertising growth-indices compare closely with those in 2000, the retail sector has been mixed and is now off to a slow start to the historically frenzied holiday period. So far this season, weekly online ad impressions for the retail sector have reached 3.7 billion in the fourth week of November, up eight% from 3.4 billion in the first week of October. This compares to last year's growth rate of 18% over the same period, when weekly impressions increased from 2.4 billion to 2.9 billion. Retail advertising last year eventually peaked in the fourth week of December at 3.7 billion impressions, up 53% from the first week of October.

"This year's holiday ramp-up has yet to reach the growth trajectory of last year's," said Buchwalter. "Declines in consumer confidence resulting from the economic downturn as well as the Sept. 11 attacks may be responsible for the delayed increase in retail advertising. We'll be watching closely to see if the sector catches up in the final days of the holiday shopping season."

Top Online Retail Advertisers Ranked According to Share of Industry Impressions 11/26/01 through 12/02/01
1 Amazon.com - 16%
2 Barnes & Noble Inc. - 11%
3 Columbia House - 10%
4 eBay Inc. - 9%
5 CMGI Inc. - 3%
6 Spiegel Publishing - 3%
7 1-800-FLOWERS.COM - 2%
8 Netflix - 2%
9 4HourWireless.com - 2%
10 Best Buy Co. Inc. - 2%

Top Online Travel Advertisers Ranked According to Share of Industry Impressions 11/26/01 through 12/02/01
1 Orbitz - 44%
2 Travelocity - 13%
3 Hotwire - 5%
4 Vail Resorts Management Co. - 5%
5 AMR Corporation - 3%
6 Princess Cruises - 2%
7 British Airways - 2%
8 Priceline.com - 2%
9 Thrifty Car Rental - 2%
10 Lufthansa - 1%