World Cup Game Hits Travel and Leisure Sector Websites Hard

Cognesia today published figures that show how the travel and leisure sector saw a 33% drop in website traffic during the recent England versus Slovenia world cup match. The Publishing sector saw a 22% drop in traffic during the game whilst the charity sector saw only a 13% drop. 

After the game the different sectors experienced very different traffic patterns showing once again how external factors can have a massive impact on website traffic.

Commenting on the numbers, Simon Roberts, Head of Client Services at Cognesia said: “We are often asked to help clients determine why their traffic is down. In this case it was such a high profile event that the cause was obvious. However the way in which the event affected different sites was very interesting. Different groups of site visitors responded very differently. It shows just how important it is to be able to understand the behaviour of individual visitor segments.”

Travel and Leisure Sector

The figures for travel and leisure show how a large proportion of their normal visitors took the afternoon off to watch the game.  From 1.00pm onwards the numbers were consistently down when compared with the same time the week before.  The largest drop was of course during the game but the reduction continued throughout the rest of the day.

Publishing Sector

The publishing sector saw a 22% drop in traffic during the game but then recovered as visitors returned to read the reviews and catch up with general day-to-day news.  There was a small drop later in the evening as visitors watched the highlights on TV or went to post match Barbecues.

“	It shows how important it is to be able to understand the behaviour of individual visitor segments.	”
	Simon Roberts Director Cognesia Ltd

Charity Sector

The charity sector saw only a small 13% drop in traffic during the game but then recovered to the same level as the week before for the rest of the day. It is interesting to note that before the game traffic was up compared with the week before – almost as if visitors had simply shifted their browsing to earlier in the day. Total traffic for the 2 days was almost identical.

This content was modified "post-publication" to use up-to-date company and product names (April 2011).