As we all know, the travel industry has been one of the hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. And while it market remains challenging and consumer confidence unpredictable, there is, nevertheless, growing optimism about traveling again as lockdown restrictions begin to ease in the UK, Europe and more globally.

Here at Melt we’ve been closely monitoring Google Trends data throughout the pandemic to assess the levels of search interest across key travel segments, including flights, hotels, holidays,cruises and car hire. We’re keen to anticipate which areas will return to so-called normal levels first, and also identify what trends might emerge in this new and unknown landscape to better assist our clients.

But why stop there? We will now be sharing some of these insights monthly to help digital marketers and travel businesses be better prepared for the inevitable return of travel demand, which you’ll be pleased to hear is already underway.

One final note before we delve in. It’s important to remember that Google Trends data is very much a guide and that any trend should be validated with other qualitative and quantitative metrics before taking action. That said, it’s hoped that the following data will give you a steer on where to investigate next.

Methodology

• Defined an initial list of searches for each category
• Used Google Trends API to pull “interest over time” and “related queries” data at scale for against the travel category (67)
• Visualised summed averaged for each category by week in the “interest over time” graphs
• Analysed rising queries within “related queries” tables from the last 30 days

How to read the graphs

• The graphs represent the average trend score for the set of keywords defined in that category for the last three years split by week
• The pink shaded area represents 2020 to date. The other colours represent previous years
• Google trends is scored out of 100, which indicates its peak. The closer the data point is to 100, the more frequently people are searching

Holidays

Interest over time (YOY)

The holiday category covers queries relating to popular holiday types. They include keywords such as winter holidays, golf holidays, beach holidays, and driving holidays.

Looking at the graph below holiday searches appear to have been on the rise since week 13, but not at the same rate as accommodation types:

Rising queries: “Holidays” (Last 30 Days)

The following table presents the rising related queries in order of value that Google Trends associates to the keyword “holidays” during the past 30 days:

Melt takeaways

This aligns with what we’ve seen so far – people showing an interest in overnight stays and shorter UK trips that would not be defined as going on a holiday.

There are also some interesting results in rising queries, such as “Lincoln Holiday Retreat”. Due to a lack of properties and publicity surrounding this holiday retreat, we’re surprised by the high level of searches for this particular term. That said, when looking at other searches, such as “blue chip holidays” and “helpful holidays”, which both offer holiday cottages, there is a trend in consumers searching for high-end UK-based cottages to escape to.

Another interesting finding in rising queries is the use of dates. Traditionally popular short-haul destinations for Brits, such as Spain, are being appended with 2020, whereas long-haul destinations, such as Las Vegas, are being paired with 2021.

As expected, beach holidays and activity-based holidays – think golf or cycling – are also on the rise. And, as restrictions have been lifted on both driving and outdoor-based activities in the UK, and hotels are once again accepting bookings, we expect interest in these types of breaks to continue initially in the UK.

Finally, for holiday insights we’ve seen a big spike in the last 30 days for UK-based holidays that lend themselves well to outdoor activities like hiking and boating. Digging deeper into this it’s clear that outdoorsy destinations like the Peak District and Lake District are going to be in high demand over the coming summer months. In fact, it’s already happening with the BBC reporting that the Lake District has seen a surge in bookings.

We hope you’ve found these accommodation travel trends and insights useful. If so, check back in next month for more of the same. If you’d like us to monitor any particular trends for you travel or non-travel get in touch here.