August 2008: Bank Holiday Getaway by Jon Armitage
A look ahead to the late summer opportunities

As the tail-end of summer approaches, we look ahead to the final opportunities to drive the last minute bookings and examine the value of implementing a short-term, bank holiday focused strategy. For full details, download the whitepaper here: Bank Holiday Getaway.

Understanding the Bank Holiday opportunity

Search volumes continue to be strong throughout August with levels on a like-for-like basis down only 2% on July. In the 2 weeks preceding the bank holiday weekend, queries enjoy a gradual rise whilst CPCs decline presenting an opportunity for claiming cost-effective additional late summer bookings. The hotels sector enjoys the biggest and earliest rise, whilst CPCs in the packages sector drop off most dramatically in August.

Bank holiday traffic

Bank holiday related keywords offer a potential source of cheaper, incremental traffic in August as their volumes surge in the 2 weeks ahead of the holiday weekend. Ad depth on these keywords is considerably below the travel average, providing the opportunity for advertisers to secure a top position in the auction at a lower cost. We attach a keyword pack targeting the bank holiday period for you to consider for this period.

Destination performance

Despite concerns regarding the economy, long-haul destination query volumes have continued to grow strongly. Query volumes relating to Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and the Caribbean continue to perform well fuelled by the development and promotion of these destinations. However, one trend relating to the economic slowdown we have witnessed has been a slowing of city destination related queries. Growth of these have underperformed expectations suggesting that whilst consumers continue to book their main holidays, they are potentially cutting back on weekend trips away