Summer Travel Boosts Hotel and Transportation Sites

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Travel sites have been the largest contributors to online traffic in June 2012, according to comScore. In its monthly analysis of US web activity, the digital measurement company found that ground and cruise travel sites ranked as the top gaining category, growing by 9 percent to 14 million visitors since the previous comparable month.

Amtrak.com took the leading spot in the category with 2.7 million visitors - an increase of 7 percent. This was followed by bus and train company FirstGroup which grew by 22 percent to 2 million visitors. Carnival Cruise Lines followed with nearly 2 million visitors and a rise of 6 percent.

Hotel and Resort sites also scored among the top-gaining traffic categories in June, growing 8 percent to more than 37 million visitors. Hilton Hotels came in first place with 5.5 million visitors, while Marriott was second with 5.4 million visitors.

"June got off to a strong start with significant traffic gains seen at travel and retail sites as Americans readied their free time for the long-awaited summer months," noted Jeff Hackett, executive vice president of comScore, in a press release.

As June's data is revealed, comScore has also expanded its display ad ecosystem reporting. The move is aimed at providing "additional granularity" in the classification of ad publishers, networks and other platforms that comprise the sector, said the company.

Among what it deemed "syndicated Ad Focus entities," Google led the way with an 82 percent reach of Americans online. This was followed by ShareThis with 79 percent. Yahoo sites came in third place with a 76 percent reach, with Facebook next at 72 percent and YouTube.com trailing at 58 percent.

For advertising and buy side networks, Google Ad Network was in top the position with a 93 percent reach, followed by AOL Advertising with 85 percent.