Australians hit October with summer firmly in sight, turning travel content into one of the month’s big digital winners.
Ipsos iris reports 18.8 million people used a travel site or app across October, capturing 85% of Australians aged 14+.
That surge delivered a 4.5% year-on-year rise for the travel category, driven by standout growth in automotive transportation (+14.7%), online travel (+11.6%), airlines (+9.2%) and travel news (+7.8%)
The Top 10 Travel Brands chart (see below) shows Uber maintaining a commanding lead with 7.8 million users, ahead of Booking.com on 6.7 million and Qantas Airways at 6.2 million.
Rounding out the top tier were TripAdvisor, Virgin Australia, Airbnb, Jetstar, Travels.com.au, Frenzli and Trip.com.
Women spent more time with travel content (57 minutes vs 51 for men), and over-40s dominated usage overall, spending nearly an hour per month across airlines, accommodation and transportation categories.
News also lifted, with 21.1 million Australians accessing news websites or apps in October, up 2.4% year on year and reaching a huge 95.5% of the online population.
Time spent held steady at 3.27 hours per person.
The Top 10 News Brands chart (see below) shows ABC News in first place with 12.77 million users, followed by news.com.au (12.26 million) and nine.com.au (10.21 million). 7news.com.au, The Guardian Australia, Daily Mail Australia, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, SBS News and bbc.com completed the leaderboard.
Audience attention was shaped by major stories including the search for Gus Lamont, the Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban separation, Melbourne’s CBD stabbing, The Block finale and global events such as the death of Diane Keaton and Hurricane Melissa
Across the wider digital landscape, October delivered momentum for several fast-growing categories.
Career content jumped 11.8%, Homes and Property rose 10.2%, and Automotive climbed 8.7%. In total, 22.1 million Australians were online, averaging 4.68 hours per day, up 2.9% year on year.
Search, social networking, technology, online media and retail remained the most-used categories, setting advertisers up for an intense summer of competition and opportunity across digital environments.
Ipsos iris continues to serve as the industry’s cross-device audience currency, covering smartphone, desktop, tablet and CTV usage in partnership with OzTAM