September Most Popular Month for Travel in Q3

Sojern, a performance marketing platform for travel brands, has released its Q3 Global Travel Insights Report based on the analysis of more than a billion traveler intent data points across the globe.

Globally, the most searched destinations during the third quarter were: the United States, Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Germany, Turkey, Thailand, Portugal and Russia. Thailand re-entered the list after a quarter’s hiatus, replacing Greece.

September was the most popular month for booking trips, with 37% of all the quarter’s booking taking place that month, according to the report.

From the beginning of the year through the end of September, in North America and Europe, increasingly more travelers searched for tickets seven days or less from the departure date. Fewer travelers searched for tickets 60 days or more before the departure date. According to the report, these results are in line with seasonal trends: in Q2 and Q3, travelers look for destinations closer to home and book tickets closer to the departure date.

This holiday season, North American travelers are looking to take longer trips than last year: 38% are searching for trips of eight days or more compared to 34% last year. For now, only 52% of North American early bookers are looking to travel alone this holiday season compared to 74% of all bookers last year, according to the report.

December 19 looks to be the most popular date to travel across Latin America, Europe and Asia-Pacific and the second most popular date to travel in North America — after December 23. For the 2015 holiday season, the report found these destinations to be the most popular: Singapore for Asia-Pacific travelers, Bangkok for Europeans, Madrid for Latin Americans and New York for North Americans.

In Latin America, Bogota ranks second for overall destinations. It’s the top origination for holiday travel, possibly due to Colombia’s steady economic rise and to changing perceptions of the safety of travel to the country, according to the report.

Click here for the full Sojern Q3 2015 report.