The Source data for our study is from 5000 top search phrases on YouTube containing “travel.” Phrases and monthly search volume were tracked with highly precise 3rd party data, not from what YouTube provides.
YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google, according to Reelseo and comScore. In December 2009 YouTube had 50 % more searches than Yahoo and 180 % more than Bing.
Queries were logged for those located in the USA when they searched. Here are some of the key takeaways and considerations:
- Videos are almost entirely not for “transactions,” so these YouTube searches show informational interest.
- YouTube is visual unlike articles on websites, so perhaps more “exotic” countries/cultures are more popular? Japan is the #1 country, and do remember that the Olympics are there this year. However, we didn’t find queries about the Olympics was particularly big in the searches.
- Smaller countries and countries Americans’ know less about do better than others. Italy and the UK, for example, get more searches for videos about cities and regions. That’s why the list of cities and regions is a useful complement to top countries.
- This is the first YouTube research study ever done on international travel interest.
- Consider top travel destinations 25 years ago. The list would be very different, especially with respect to Asian destinations, if people were looking through magazines or books that are visual like videos.
- The data was compiled in early January 2019 before information about the CoronaVirus was in the news.
