• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, August 27, 2015

Search queries for air travel, hotel, and car rentals peaked in July -- rising 4%, 13%, and 15%, respectively in the first quarter of 2015 compared with the same time frame in the prior year, according to Google data.

More than 190 million people use Google monthly, making more than 100 billion searches. That’s 80% of all Internet users, per Google data. So the engine created a travel dashboard to gain insight into the places people travel to and from. The interactive dashboard uses Google data to show how travelers search. The Mountain View, Calif. company said it will update the tool quarterly to show the latest trends across car rental, air, and hotel categories.

Other types of brands and retailers should also pay attention to travel trends. Perhaps it seem obvious, but here's a reminder: brands and retailers in the "other" category may not provide rental car services or hotel rooms, but they do sell accessories, clothing, and other items required for trips.

People living in Los Angeles were most interested in traveling to Las Vegas -- up 36% -- followed by New York, San Francisco, and Chicago between July and September 2014, according to Google's data. While people from Los Angeles were least interested in traveling to Denver, Co., search queries rose 57% during the same time frame. 

Allegiant Air search queries rose 52% between January and June 2015 in the United States. Southwest Airlines followed, rising 25%, followed by Delta Air Lines at 19%, Jet Blue at 14%, and United Airlines at 12%.

The top five travel-related questions were "When is the best time to book a flight?" rising 245%; Where is [destination]?, 122%; Passport questions, 118%; What to do in  [destination]?, 110%; and How old do you have to be to rent a car?, 19%.

Travelers also searched more on mobile phones for information on hotels, tours and attractions, air travel, car rentals, and cruises. Hotels led, rising 49% from January to June 2015 in the Untied States compared with the prior year. Cruises also rose 49% during that time frame. Tours and attractions followed -- increasing 47%; rental car, 47%; and air, 33%.

Mobile isn't just for passengers. On Wednesday Delta announced a guest services tool providing its more than 22,000 flight attendants with information so they can better engage with customers while in flight. It has data on each passenger based on their assigned seat.

Data aggregated by eMarketer from comScore shows that unique visitor share for the top 10 U.K. travel sites by device for June 2015. Desktop still leads for sites like Priceline at 62%, followed by mobile only at 26%, and desktop and mobile at 11%. TripAdvisor users, on the other hand, tend to search more and conduct more business on moble at 49% vs. desktop at 32% and desktop and mobile at 19%.