Record number of Brazilians turn to the web for planning and booking travel

"2012 has been marked by rapid growth in the Brazilian online travel space with the top holiday months of January and June representing new visitation records for the category," said Alex Banks, comScore managing director for Brazil and vice president for Latin America. "Whether they are purchasing flights, researching hotels, scouring travel sites for trip advice, or other travel-related activities, Brazilian consumers are increasingly relying on the web for all of their travel planning needs. Suppliers and OTAs need to ensure their digital strategies address this growing audience of online-savvy travellers, especially as we see increasing competition to attract new customers and retain current ones."

HotelUrbano, Decolar and TAM lead as top travel destinations in Brazil

In July 2012, 16.5 million online users age 6 and older accessed travel sites from a home or work computer, an increase of 18% from the previous year and nearly tripling in audience size since July 2009. A look at the top travel sites (at the domain level) found that local brands secured nearly all the top positions in the ranking. HotelUrbano.com.br led as the top destination, reaching 3.1 million unique visitors in July, followed by Decolar.com with 2.3 million visitors. Airline destinations secured the next two spots with TAM.com.br reaching 2.3 million visitors and Voegol.com.br reaching nearly 2 million visitors. OTA site Submarinoviagens.com.br ranked as the fifth largest travel site with 1.7 million visitors.

*Does not include visits from public Access computers, such as Internet cafes, mobile phones or PDAs.

1 in 3 travel category visitors are 25-34 years old

Analysis of visitors to the Travel category found that males and females were nearly equally likely to visit the category and consume content, with both gender groups accounting for nearly half of visitors and page views. Among age segments, visitors age 25-34 accounted for nearly 1 in every 3 visitors to the Travel category (32.6%), but older age segments displayed a higher likelihood to visit Travel sites than an average Internet user. Persons age 45-55 were 21% more likely to visit travel sites (index of 121), while those age 55 and older indexed even higher at 128. Both age segments also displayed a higher likelihood to consume travel content than an average Internet user with a page view index of 126 and 156, respectively.

Geographically, São Paulo accounted for 32% of visitors the Travel category, followed by Rio de Janeiro with 13% of visitors. Although representing just 4.6% of travel category visitors, online users in Distrito Federal were 18% more likely to access travel sites than an average Internet user and 60% more likely to consume travel content (index of 160), displaying the strongest geographic skew among states.

*Does not include visits from public Access computers, such as Internet cafes, mobile phones or PDAs.
**Index = % of Segment/% of Total Users x 100; Index of 100 indicates average representation.