DO NOT USE, DUPLICATE: Thomas Cook reveals busiest time of day for online bookings
Online bookings peak between 8pm and 10pm, according to research by Thomas Cook.
In its first ever Holiday Report, released today, it revealed that customers visit its website an average of 11 times before completing a booking.
Examining booking patterns hour by hour, its data shows research traffic is steady throughout the day, with interest creeping up from breakfast onwards.
Customers tend to research their holiday on their daily commute and over lunch, and even have a sneaky peak during office hours.
"Time spent searching for holidays slowly gives way to time spent actually booking them and transactions overtake searches around 5pm, before peaking between 8-10pm," says the report.
It added: "Is it a coincidence that this is the time when you are most likely to have a glass of wine in your hand?"
The report said the most significant shift in the last three years has been’¨ the rise in people using their mobiles to search for holidays, up 113% on thomascook.com between May 2014 and April 2017.
Tablets and smartphones dominate searches while desktop and laptop are the preferred choice for actual bookings.
But research found 43% of customers said they still use shops for research and 60% said high street agents are one of their preferred means of booking.
Of those that research their holiday online, two thirds go into a shop at some stage of the process.
Unlike online, where traffic is pretty much steady throughout the week, weekends are most popular for in-store bookings.
One in five bookings take place on a Saturday and Sunday bookings are also on the rise.
The Thomas Cook Holiday Report also highlighted the power of virtual reality devices being used in its stores.
Data from eight stores showed that when customers experienced a virtual New York helicopter trip, sales rose by 28%, while Royal Caribbean’s cruise ship video led to a 45% jump.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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