Colombian Online Travel Sector Grows 25 Percent in the Past Year

*Despegar-Decolar Sites Ranks as Top Online Travel Destination*

Bogotá, Colombia, August 11, 2011 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released the latest results from a study on the online travel market in Colombia. The study found that in the past year visitation to the Travel category increased 25 percent to reach 3.2 million unique visitors in Colombia, as more online users utilized the web to research and purchase travel. Despegar-Decolar Sites led as the top travel destination in Colombia reaching 453,000 unique visitors in June, followed by Expedia Inc. and Avianca.com.

“Nearly 1 in 4 online users in Colombia visited a travel site in June,” said Alejandro Fosk, comScore senior vice president for Latin America. “Travel sites have witnessed rapid visitor growth in the past year as more consumers embrace the online channel for their travel needs while brands continue to improve the user experience by upgrading site features. Given that more mature online markets around the globe see upwards of half of their online population frequenting travel sites, there is much potential for continued growth in Colombia’s online travel sector.”

Travel Sites See Growth across Sector

More than 13 million people age 15 and older in Colombia visited the Internet from a home or work location in June. 3.2 million Internet users – or nearly one quarter of the total online audience – visited the Travel category during the month, an increase of 25 percent from the previous year. Among the various Online Travel subcategories, Travel – Information sites attracted the largest audience with nearly 1.7 million visitors (up 13 percent from the previous year), while Online Travel Agents achieved the strongest gains, climbing 78 percent to 1.1 million visitors. The Airline category reached 931,000 visitors in June, an increase of 16 percent from the previous year, while Hotels/Resorts grew 28 percent to 687,000 visitors.

*Excludes visits from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs

Most-Visited Travel Sites in Colombia

The average category visitor in Colombia spent 15.3 minutes on Travel sites in June. Online Travel Agent brand Despegar-Decolar Sites ranked as the #1 travel destination with 453,000 unique visitors followed by Expedia Inc. with 430,000 visitors. Airline sites Avianca.com (412,000 visitors), Aires.aero (372,000 visitors) and CopaAir.com (199,000 visitors) secured the remainder of the top five spots in the ranking. Of the top 10 most-visited Travel websites, users spent the greatest amount of time on Aires.aero (12.5 minutes) and Avianca.com (11.1 minutes).

*Excludes visits from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs

*Source: comScore