According to comScore, car rental, genealogy and education sites experienced the highest growth in March 2006. With three of the top ten gaining categories this month falling under the travel umbrella, it is clear that March continued to be a time for making last minute travel, holiday, spring break, and/or summer plans. Car rental properties saw the greatest growth this month ? up 22% over last month with more than 6.8 mln visitors. Not far behind, the Ground Transportation/Cruise Category grew 17% over February with 9.8 mln visitors, while visitation to Hotel and Resort sites increased 13% during the same period, with 32.9 mln visitors. Of those, Hotels.com led the category in traffic (up 9% to 5.6 mln visitors), followed by Marriott (up 11% to 4.7 mln visitors).
With the SAT looming in early April, the popularity of online training and education sites soared during March. Overall, the Training and Education category rose 22% over February. Visits to the College Board Property, the official SAT Web property, rose 14% to 2.8 mln visitors, while PrincetonReview.com saw traffic increase 39% to 693,000 visitors. Additionally, Fastweb.com, a site offering college scholarships, maintained a strong position in the category with 1.7 mln visitors and growth of 35% versus the previous month.
| Top-growing categories in March 2006 | |||
| Audience | Growth | ||
| Feb 2006 | Mar 2006 | ||
| Car Rental | 5,556 | 6,799 | 22% |
| Genealogy | 8,247 | 10,030 | 22% |
| Education | 7,928 | 9,640 | 22% |
| Ground/Cruise | 8,326 | 9,775 | 17% |
| Religion | 14,098 | 16,350 | 16% |
| Sports/Outdoor | 19,056 | 21,731 | 14% |
| Classifieds | 26,878 | 30,432 | 13% |
| Hotels/Resorts | 29,024 | 32,861 | 13% |
| Automotive | 37,536 | 42,036 | 12% |
| Retail – Movies | 22,431 | 25,021 | 12% |
| Total | 166,966 | 171,421 | 3% |
|
Source: comScore |
|||