Tourism, shopping bring more Europeans online

Typical summer activities continue to bring more Europeans online. According to new research from comScore, both French and German surfers boosted traffic to tourism and shopping web hubs.

Researchers also found that many French websites are now drawing international traffic.

In May, French shoppers boosted traffic to Karstadt-Quelle by 117% while traffic to flower hub Florajet.com increased by 70%. Much of this traffic increase was likely pushed by the Mother's Day holiday. French users were also interested in weather and travel information as the summer got into full swing. Traffic to weather hub MeteoFrance.com increased by 33% in May.

Germany saw very similar results, however, tourism sites saw the greatest increase in traffic. Eurowings Luftverkehr saw traffic increase by 185% while traffic to Wetter Online increased by 35%.

Researchers also found that much of the traffic to French media hubs was gained from international visitors. In April researchers found that 35% of the traffic to television, radio and newspaper sites in France were from outside of the country. Much of the increase was likely brought in by the French general election, however many French hubs draw a consistently international audience.

Marketers wanting to make a global impact would be well served, then, to invest some of their online budget to French sites.

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