MyTravel is celebrating what it claims is a major triumph for the company after overtaking the Lastminute.com online travel agency for the first time.
MyTravel secured a 5.2% share of visits to travel agency websites making it the third most visited travel agency website in the week ending January 13 , according to Hitwise figures.
Expedia currently holds a 8.6% share of the market, down 9% on the same period last year, with Thomson in second place with 7.6%, up a massive 30%.
Although the figures are for one week only and during what would normally be a traditionally busy period for MyTravel, bosses have pointed to a concerted effort in the past 12 months to ramp up its online presence.
MyTravel languished behind most of competitors in January last year with a 3.4% share. Its current level marks a 55% increase year-on-year.
Russell Gould, director of digital marketing for MyTravel, commented: “Over the last 12 months we have constantly improved our websites to make them as customer friendly as possible.
The company is currently selling a quarter of its holidays via the web, up from 7% two years ago.
Gould commented: “We’ve completely changed our websites, based on how our customers want to use them.
“This, along with TV advertising for our Airtours brand for the first time in years, and more focused online marketing has helped us to increase the number of people visiting our sites and continuing on to book.”
Lastminute.com was unavailable for comment.