SimilarWeb, the global cross device market intelligence company, has revealed the best performing and fastest-growing websites in the travel industry.
The SimilarWeb “Digital Visionaries Awards” analyzed thousands of websites in order to identify the best performing and most rapidly growing sites in the U.S. The methodology compared each website's average 12-month ranking in 2015 with their average 12-month ranking the previous year. SimilarWeb’s rankings are based on a unique algorithm, calculating number of visits, and successful engagement, including page views and time spent by visitors on a site. While a site’s rise in in rankings year-over-year was taken into account, extra weight was given to companies successfully overtaking leading players in their sector.
Airbnb, SimilarWeb’s winner in the travel sector, rose 339 places in rankings over a year and is now an established star. The online accommodation community, achieved average monthly visits of 94.9 million visits last year, engaging users for an average of 11 minutes per session, visiting an average of 13 pages. The site has risen to become the third-biggest player in the online travel industry - only behind Booking.com and TripAdvisor.com
In second-place, U.S vacation rental site, VRBO, has jumped 459 places in popularity, while third-placed Carnival rose 789 places in this period.
Pascal Cohen, SimilarWeb Digital Insights Manager, said: “In many cases the fastest growing sites in travel have risen hundreds of places in global rankings to become among the most popular in their field. Our methodology showing average year-over-year growth shows that this growth is not seasonal. These companies have adopted a range of digital strategies to disrupt their industries and engage with millions of new customers in a short period of time.”
