The report covering the sector also found queries for cruise excursions on the UK’s river Thames saw the biggest increase compared to the Caribbean, Mediterranean and the Nile.
The agency’s findings follow figures released last week by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). They showed over 22 million visits were made to the UK by foreign tourists in the first eight months of 2013, 6% up on the number who visited last year. Visitor numbers in August totalled 3.5million, making it the best month thus far this year.
Greenlight’s ‘Cruise Sector Report – Issue 2’ profiles the most popular keywords consumers used to look for cruise holidays on Google UK in August, grouped by generic, brand, destination and cruise liner-related queries. It also gives insights into players that were most visible to consumer searches and reveals the size of the potential online audience.
According to Greenlight, consumers made a total of 2.5 million searches on Google UK for cruises in August, compared to 1.5 million in May.
Cruises to specific destinations made up 12% (289,890) of overall queries.
Totalling 19,200, cummulative searches for cruises to the Caribbean accounted for the majority of destination-related queries (7%), the term ‘caribbean cruises’ being the most popular.
The Mediterranean followed. Combined, related searches totalled 17,500 (6%) with the terms ‘mediterranean cruise’, and ‘med cruises’ featuring prominently.
In third place destination-wise was the Nile. Collectively, ‘nile cruise’ and ‘nile cruises’ pulled in 16,500 queries.
Totalling 9,900, queries for cruises on the river Thames, among the ten most searched for destination-wise, made the biggest gains. Searches rose a whopping 71% on May’s level, compared to 42% for the Nile and 37% both for the Caribbean and Mediterranean.
Greenlight ranked the most visible sites to consumer searches for cruises overall and also split by generic, brand, destination, cruise liner-specific queries.
Independent cruise agent, Iglucruise.com, was the most visible site for destination-specific queries, attaining a 45% share of visibility in the organic listings*, through ranking for 419 keywords. Thomascook.com, took second place with 44%.
Vivavoyage.co.uk was the most visible advertiser in the paid listings achieving a 51% share of voice. Virginholidayscruises.co.uk followed with 37%.
For cruise-related searches overall, Iglucruise.com was also the most visible site in natural search, capturing a 62% share of visibility. In the paid listings, cruisecritic.co.uk dominated with 50%.
