According to a new report travelers are increasingly taking a series of smaller vacations, versus traditional week-long vacations – and are buying record amounts of travel products and services on the Internet as a result.

The just-published PhoCusWright Consumer Travel Trends Survey Ninth Edition finds that long weekend trips (defined as a three-night stay away from home) are now the most popular type of leisure travel. Leisure travelers take more than twice as many long weekend trips than they do week-long vacations in a year.

The survey also uncovered these valuable facts:

• The smaller the financial investment and distance traveled for a trip, the more inclined travelers are to purchase their travel online.
• With almost four trips per year and more than double the incidence of spending online compared to long vacationers (59% vs. 24%), long weekend travelers actually represent the more profitable online buying segment of the two.
• Long weekend travelers are significantly more likely than their traditional vacation counterparts to be frequent travelers, and to stay in a hotel when traveling for pleasure. They are also more likely to purchase tickets to events or attractions, are more likely to shop online travel agencies and have a higher average household income.

In addition to investigating the dynamics of leisure travelers who purchase online, The PhoCusWright Consumer Travel Trends Survey Ninth Edition probes the travel buying behavior of frequent business travelers.

This report is packed with findings and insights on the American leisure online travel buyer

For more information or to order this report, visit www.phocuswright.com/reports/CTTS9