Thursday 10 September

Older market masters the internet

According to a leading researcher, older generations are becoming increasingly savvy with the internet,including the use of social media.
Mark Higginson, Director of analytics at Nielsen Online, told the Traveltech conference in Sydney yesterday that more than 14 million Australians now use the internet, with users averaging 40 hours per month Of those, eight million searched for travel-related material in July.

The number of people using the internet for travel purposes now matched those who use online banking, he told delegates. But Higginson dismissed the notion that the web is youth orientated, revealing that the 35-49 age bracket spent the most time online at 32%, followed by the 18-34 age bracket 22%. 

Closer analysis showed 28% of internet usage was from the 50yrs and over age bracket. “Not by any means are we looking at a youth market here,” Higginson said.

He said of the top 10 websites in Australia, three of them are social media sites with Facebook attracting 7.7 million visitors in July. Facebook had grown 69% year on year while Twitter from a smaller base start had grown 79% year-on-year.

Higginson said that while collectively, comparative travel search engines accounted for most visitors in the travel sector, the most popular individual sites belonged to airlines. Qantas had 2.1 million visitors in July, followed by Virgin Blue 1.37 million and Jetstar with 1.1 million.  Google, Nine msn and Microsoft are the top three initial search websites in Australia.

Editors Comments: This is further confirmation, if any were needed, that those who are still sticking to their opinion that the internet is anything but the most powerful marketing and sales tool ever created are going to get left behind.  With just a little guidance most businesses can easily utilise this most cost effective weaponry and ensure their potential clients and customers get all the product or service information they need to be able to make a value judgement before booking or buying.....Don't get left behind, get on the bus now !