UK online market dominated by 'big hitters' - 07 Nov 2003: "Travel websites that dominated the UK market in the first half of this year aren't being pushed out by newer rivals, according to results released by internet monitors, Hitwise.

In the airline category, EasyJet, Ryanair, British Airways and bmibaby take the top four slots (in that order) for most UK visits to airline websites in quarter 3, the same positions they took in quarter 2.

The results for the agency websites tell a similar story with lastminute.com, expedia.com, teletextholidays.co.uk and uk.mytravel.com holding off competition from the likes of cheapflights.co.uk and thomson-holidays.com.

In the top four positions for number of visits to destination and accommodation websites, lastminute takes the top slot again, followed by activehotels.com, holidaysuncovered.co.uk and superbreak.com.

Commenting on the results, Hitwise marketing manager, Jannie Cahill told TravelMole: 'The results are quite consistent at the top of the tables. The reason for this is because these bigger companies are spending a lot of money on advertising.

'On the other hand, there are other websites, like cheapflights moving up the rackings that aren't spending as much on advertising, and are getting more visits through customer loyalty; and that is good to see.'"

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