Researchers classify travel searches

Nearly three quarters of American Internet users have used the Web to find travel information — everything from discount airline tickets to driving directions — according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Jim Jansen, assistant professor of information sciences and technology (IST), along with IST student Christopher Ciamacca and Amanda Spink of Queensland University of Technology in Australia, identified three key findings about online travel searches in a recently-published paper.

First, they found that travel searches represent a significant portion of searches on general-purpose sites like Google. Those searches occur in single terms and commonly used pairs like "New York," "Kentucky Derby" and "Holiday Inn."

"This implies that a significant portion of people seeking travel-related information use non-travel-specific sites at some point in their search," Jansen said. "This makes the general purpose search engines rich targets for those advertising travel-related information."

The researchers also found that there is great diversity among the travel-related searches, which may indicate a need for improving the information provided on travel sites.

The final conclusion drawn was that search topics fell into two categories – either very specific or very vague, which could mean that searchers are unclear about how to express their needs or find the information they want. This problem could be fixed by incorporating cross-platform collaboration.

"For example, if a customer books a ticket on an airline travel site, a targeted link might appear for travel books on that city and for restaurant review sites in that area," Jansen said.

The paper, "Analysis of Travel Information Searching on the Web" appeared in the Journal of Information Technology and Tourism. Jansen said the research outlined in the paper could help search engines and other Web sites directed at travelers and tourists.