Travel Trend Report – Get ready for January!

Traditionally right after Christmas people start to plan their vacation, so January is by far the most important month for this industry.

Over the course of this year, we experienced an overall strong growth in this industry. 2019 showed very impressive results: Order value increased by 21% YOY and number of clicks increased by 35% YOY. Whilst the number of sales and AOV decreased slightly, mobile sales increased by 27% YOY.

With these very healthy numbers, the travel industry demonstrated once again their important role in affiliate marketing. Looking at the timeframe January to October 2019, travel OV now accounts for almost 32% of the Tradedoubler affiliate business. AOV in the travel industry was significantly higher than across all industries and rose to 114 EUR, while across all industries it was only 68 EUR. A very interesting observation is, that mobile sales were still very low though in travel. While across all industries mobile sales in 2019 rose to 22% (compared to 20% in 2018), in the travel industry mobile sales just reached 6% (compared to 4%) in 2019.  However the numbers for Smartphone AOV were impressive: While Smartphone AOV for travel was at an average of incredible 273 EUR during 2019, across all industries it was only at 63 EUR. Especially during January 2019, a strong Smartphone AOV of 355 EUR was achieved. 

Importance of January
Looking at the seasonality of the travel order value for each month 2019, we noticed the highest peak in January. Our numbers for 2019 demonstrate that April was the second most important peak for the travel order value after January. Followed by July – a trend we have seen in our previous Travel Trend Report. Overall. the whole travel industry has grown significantly over 2019. So, you should hurry up to take advantage of the upcoming peak in travel! 

January, followed by April and July, generated the highest order values over the year 2019. Order value in January 2019 grew by +21% compared to OV in January 2018. According to the trend we see above, we expect an even higher OV for January 2020! Number of Sales decreased slightly, however mobile sales grew by +25% compared to January 2018!  Smartphone AOV rose by remarkable 31% YOY to 355 EUR in January 2019. With this outstanding number, Smartphone AOV was even higher than the increased AOV (127EUR) in January 2019. Interestingly, we saw a peak for the AOV in April 2019 with an outstanding AOV of 140 EUR, followed by January (127 EUR) and July (126 EUR).

Poland surpasses all expectations
Some countries have experienced specifically high growth in travel OV 2019. In our Travel Trend Report for the first half of 2019, we already saw great growth for Poland and Belgium. For 2019 Poland surpassed all expectations and grew by a remarkable 861% YOY, Belgium by 643%, Spain by 189%, Germany by healthy 113% YOY and France by 108% YOY.  

The biggest markets for the travel industry 2019 were the UK, France, Poland, and Spain. The UK provided the highest OV across all countries and took a share of 31% of the total OV across all countries. The highest mobile sales were generated again in the UK, France and the Netherlands. Mobile sales in the UK grew by +29% YOY and were therefore even higher than total mobile sales across all countries (+27%)!

Publisher Models
Looking at the publisher models: four site types shared 76% of the overall travel order value between each other: Cashback/Loyalty (31%), Coupon/Discount (20%), Third-party technology (13%) and Vertical sites (12%).

Whilst Cashback/Loyalty, Coupon/Discount and Third-party technology have benefited from the growth in the travel segment, Vertical Sites slightly declined in OV by 9% YOY.

Cashback/Loyalty
The conversion rate in Cashback/Loyalty further increased to a new record level of 19% (compared to a CR of 2% across the travel industry). OV slightly decreased by 2% but still, Cashback/Loyalty generated the highest OV across all publisher models. Number of Sales grew by +49% YOY, and Mobile Sales by 48% YOY. The Smartphone AOV (262 EUR) was even higher than the AOV (200 EUR) in 2019.

Coupon/Discount codes

Coupon/Discount codes increased their OV by 16% YOY and generated the second-highest order value across all publisher models. Whilst number of sales decreased by 29%, Mobile Sales grew by 14%. Smartphone AOV increased by 53% YOY to 153 EUR, AOV increased by 60% YOY to remarkable 185EUR. 

Third-party technology and vertical sites all accounted for 11-13%. Both publisher models created higher conversion rates compared to the CR of 2% across the travel industry – third party technology (CR of 6%) and vertical sites (CR of 35%). AOV for vertical sites grew by a remarkable 62% YOY!

Even though seasonality is slightly shifting away from the all-leaving month of January, the beginning of the year remains one of the strongest seasons for travel bookings. Our numbers prove that there’s a lot of potential in this fast-growing industry for you! Therefore, it’s time to start planning your travel campaigns now!

Key Facts for Travel across Europe 2019 at a Glance