SINGAPORE, Aug. 24, 2011
/PRNewswire-Asia/ --
Given all the deals and disruption
in the travel market over recent months, what have Singaporeans
been searching for online? Wego.com has taken a snapshot of 50,000
users' flight choices, selected while searching its own and its
partners' websites across the Lion City. The results, compiled from
a sample study this July, made interesting reading.
If the budget airlines at Changi
Airport seem busier, it is due to huge uptake of low cost fares.
Tiger Airways and Jetstar Asia accounted for a quarter of all
flight selections made, with Indonesia AirAsia and Lion Air
displacing full-service brands in the top 10 airline rankings.
Tiger Airways alone grew its share of Wego.com and partner searches
by 6 percentage points year-on-year.
Most frequently selected
airlines
Source: Wego Travel Insights,
comparing July 2010-July 2011 selections across Wego.com and its
partner sites.
Cathay Pacific moved up to third
place in the rankings, ahead of Singapore Airlines. This was
largely attributable to its aggressive pricing on the Singapore-Tokyo route
in the period following the March natural disaster in Japan. Cathay
Pacific increased its share of selections from 4 to 36 percent
year-on-year, at the expense of non-stop flights from Delta
(formerly Northwest), United and ANA.
The low cost carriers are clearly
stimulating growth in travel to closer to home destinations with
Jakarta and Phuket climbing the top 10 destinations list at the
expense of Shanghai and Tokyo, despite volumes of searches to both
destinations also rising. And, with Seoul ousting London for 10th
position, it's intra-Asia all the way.
Most frequently searched-for
flight destinations
Source: Wego Travel Insights,
comparing July 2010-July 2011 selections across Wego.com and its
partner sites.
There were some notable downward
shifts in pricing as well. With the budget airlines firmly
established on the Singapore-Kuala
Lumpur route, almost two-thirds of flights selected were
priced below S$50 this July compared with half in July 2010.
Also, two-thirds of Hong Kong selections were below S$300 compared
with only 30% last year, driven by both capacity increases and more
low cost airline frequencies.
Martin Symes, CEO at Wego explained:
"There are many factors at play, but it is clear from the numbers
that the budget carriers have hit on a winning strategy in
Singapore. Their next challenge is establishing brand loyalty - as
more competition approaches this dynamic outbound market."
Wego Travel Insights will look next
at Asia's hotel market, publishing analysis in a fresh report due
out in the fourth quarter 2011.
About Wego Travel
Insights
Wego Travel Insights represent the
compiled data and analysis of travel searches conducted on travel
comparison site Wego.com and partner websites
within the region. These include MSN, Yahoo!, eBay, Via Singapore,
Detik Indonesia and News.com.au.
This edition is based on a sample of
50,000 searches conducted in Singapore in July 2011 and measures
two points of customer contact. The first is when customers key
their travel search queries into Wego's search engine. Based on
Wego's results generated by travel partners, it then measures the
travel options chosen to best suit their needs.
Wego's results are compiled from
various travel partners such as Agoda, Booking.com, Expedia, Asia
Travel, Priceline as well as all major full service and low cost
airlines.
About Wego
Wego.com allows travellers to search
for flights, hotels, packages, travel deals and research across
130+ travel websites in the time that it normally takes to search
just one. Wego searches travel websites in real-time so that
the latest pricing and availability are shown. Travellers are then
linked through to partner websites to book. Wego.com was founded in
2005 by former executives from Intercontinental Hotels Group,
Yahoo!, Priceline and ZUJI. Investors include News Digital Media
and Tiger Global. In November 2010, Wego merged with HolidayIQ, an
Indian based travel content and community site.
For more information, please
visit: http://www.wego.com/about
SOURCE Wego.com