Sales from The Co-operative Travel Group’s website are set to increase from £3 million to £11 million this year – nearly a 300% hike.
The site, co-operativetravel.co.uk, has had more than 3.2 million visitors, who have looked at more than 20 million pages, since is was relaunched in December last year. And the number of holidaymakers who buy holidays from the site – the look-to-book numbers – has gone up by more than half.
The most popular European destinations are Majorca, Turkey, Ibiza, Faro and Crete, with Sharm el-Sheikh, Goa, and Florida the top worldwide destinations. In line with the market, all-inclusive holidays remain popular.
Head of e-commerce Neil Hardy said the newly-launched Co-operative brand was a huge factor in the website’s success as it is seen as “secure and trustworthy”.
In May, Hardy announced in Travel Weekly’s sister title Travolution that the site was tracking booking patterns online regarding how customers react to news, weather and sports reports each day to see if certain events have an impact on bookings.
Hardy said revenues generated by the site were up 285% since its relaunch, while visitor numbers were up 220% on a like-for-like basis. Bookings made online still make up a small number of overall bookings, but the average value of an online sale was about £1,000.