Travel has become a increasingly popular global activity with no less than 940 million international tourist arrivals last year and a International tourism receipts total of around US$919 billion. The following article is about the top 100 most popular travel sites in 2011 as per the number of unique visitors. It includes some of the most popular travel booking agencies such as Expedia and SkyScanner, user generated portals with thousands of customer reviews such as TripAdvisor, as well as top hotel sites including Agoda and other well known hotel brands such as the Accorhotels and Intercontinental group. Other top candidates on our list are websites mostly known for the quality of their travel content and unique insights on the world’s top destinations such as Lonely Planet as well as some of the most popular global airlines. We divided the candidates into various topics including top booking websites, hotel websites, travel content websites and top airline websites. The complete top 100 travel sites list is displayed at the bottom of the article.
Topics
Travel website categories
Although there are many different travel ways we could of categorize the top 100 winners, we divided our list into the following key topics: top booking sites such as Expedia, Priceline and Kayak, top hotel specific sites such as Hilton and Accorhotels, top travel content sites such as Wikitravel and Lonely Planet, airline sites with the most popular carrier brands and finally other category where the rest of the travel related sites can be found including money conversion, cruises and timeshares bookings.
|
Top Booking |
Top Hotels |
Travel Content |
Top Airlines |
Other |
|
Booking |
Marriott |
Lonely Planet |
Southwest |
XE.com |
Top Booking websites
The following are the top Booking websites which include large holding companies such as Priceline (owner of Booking and Agoda) or Expedia (owner of TripAdvisor and Hotwire ) offering the full range of travel services, hotel specific sites such as Agoda, hostels sites, User Generated sites such as TripAdvisor as well as Flights specific sites such as the excellent SkyScanner service.
|
All |
Hotels |
Flights |
User generated |
Hostels |
|
Expedia |
Booking |
SkyScanner |
TripAdvisor |
Hostelworld.com |
Booking.com
Booking.com is the web most popular accommodation reservation service attracting more than 30 million unique visitors each month from both leisure and business markets worldwide. It offers various accommodations types from small independent to five star luxury hotels, with over 135,000 properties across 101 countries. Along with Agoda it is part of Priceline.com.
TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor.com is the biggest travel site when it comes to customers reviews and opinions, making it the perfect place to gather travel information. The users provide most of the content including reviews, star ratings and travel forums. It is part of the TripAdvisor Media Group, operated by Expedia Inc.
Check out the latest travel offers on TripAdvisor.
Expedia.com
Expedia is one of the biggest web based travel booking agency offering a variety of services include airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, cruises and vacation package deals. It is based in the US with localized sites for 20 countries including Canada, Japan, India, Singapore, Australia New Zealand, UK and many other European countries. Expedia was first started by Microsoft and is now a publicly traded company.
Priceline
Priceline.com is a public traded company that facilitates the provision of travel services by its suppliers to its customers to helps users obtain discount rates for travel-related items such as airline tickets and hotel stays. Priceline was the brainchild of digital entrepreneur Jay S. Walker and later purchased by the Hong Kong company Cheung Kong Holdings.
Kayak
Kayak is a famous metasearch engine which looks for flights, hotels and rental car rates from hundreds of other websites. Indeed Kayak aggregates results from various top travel sites, allowing its visitors to compare options and redirects them to one of these sites for reservation.
Yahoo! Travel
Yahoo travel is an online travel site offering airline tickets, hotels, cars, cruises and vacation pack reservations.
Orbitz
Orbitz provides customers with an easy way to research, plan and book a broad range of travel products. It facilitates no less than 1.5 million flight searches and one million hotel searches per day and give users access to some of the lowest fares.
Travelocity
Travelocity is perhaps the second biggest online travel agency offering a variety of travel services, including fare finder, hotel and car rental information. It operates a full-service business agency with main offices in the USA but also in Canada, Germany, France, the Scandinavian countries, Mexico, India and the United Kingdom. Travelocity sister sites include lastminute.com in Europe and Zuji in Asia as well as other brands such as World Choice Travel, a travel affiliate marketing program, IgoUgo, an online travel community and travel-planning resource, and AllHotels, an online hotel reservation site.
Hotwire
Hotwire is a discount travel website that offers low prices on airfare, hotel, rental cars and vacation packages by selling off unsold travel inventory at discounted prices. It is headquartered in San Francisco and is part of the Expedia group along with hotels.com, ClassicVacations.com and TripAdvisor.com.
Travelzoo
Travelzoo is a global Internet media company with no less than 23 million subscribers around the world. It publishes handpicked sales and special offers from over 2000 travel, entertainment and local companies. Travelzoo is one of the largest and most trusted publisher of travel, entertainment and local deals with each deal published tested for accuracy, availability and overall ease of the booking process.
Venere.com
Venere is an online hotel, B&B and apartment reservation service.
Agoda
Agoda.com is one of the best online hotel reservation services offering more than 150 thousands of accommodations, a real time booking system and the lowest rates guaranteed. Agoda has a worldwide reach and is one of the market leader in the Asia Pacific Region with offices in Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Phuket, Bali, Sydney, Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai and Manila.
Check out the latest Agoda hotel deals, best prices guaranteed.
Hostelworld.com
Hostelworld.com is an online booking site offering over 17,000 hostels worldwide and over 1 million customer reviews.
Cheap Tickets
Cheaptickets.com offers a variety of travel services including airline tickets, cruise tickets, auto rentals and hotel reservations.
Late Rooms
LateRooms.com is a hotel reservations website providing accommodation throughout the UK, Europe and the rest of the world. It offers a wide choice of accommodations with more than 44,000 choices including independent and chain hotels, and has a daily unique visitors average of 231,758.
SkyScanner
Skyscanner is perhaps the best flight reservation tool on the web, comparing hundred of airlines across various dates, as well as having various handy tools such as the interactive flight map. It offers some of the best flights deals worldwide but especially within Europe.
Check out the latest Skyscanner flight deals.
Cheap Flights
Cheapflights is a British based site, enabling users to browse worldwide flight destinations and find suitable cheap flights from all major destinations.
Hostelbookers.com
Hostelbookers.com is one of the biggest online worldwide hostels booking service.
Hotel.de
hotel.de is a Germany based hotel reservation website.
HRS Hotel Reservation Service
HRS Hotel Reservation as it name entails is one of the biggest worldwide hotel booking system.
Expedia.ca
Expedia.ca is the Canadian version of one of the biggest web based travel website offering a variety of travel services available both in French and English.
OneTravel.com
Onetravel is a travel website offering Flights, Hotels and other Packages deals to top destinations throughout the world.
Wotif.com
Wotif is an Australian reservation service offering worldwide hotels. The key advantage of their site is that it provides information for the next 3 months, with often hotels lowering their rates as the date gets closer.
BedandBreakfast.com
Bedandbreakfast is perhaps the biggest site of its kind offering thousands of bed and breakfasts, inns and homestays worldwide.
Thomas Cook Retail Ltd
Thomascook is an International accredited travel agency offering an online booking service for flights, hotels and other package deals.
Ebookers.com
Ebookers is a well known travel reservation center offering various vacation packages, hotels, air fares and car hire services.
Top Hotels websites
The following are the top Hotel websites which include some of the world’s biggest and most famous accommodation networks.
|
Name |
Group |
Country |
Hotels |
|
Marriott |
Marriott International |
USA |
3,150 lodging properties |
|
Hilton Hotels & Resorts |
USA |
||
|
Hyatt Hotels |
Hyatt Hotels Corporation |
USA |
735 Hyatt Hotels |
|
InterContinental Hotels Group |
UK |
4,500 hotels under InterContinental Hotels Group |
|
|
Accor group |
France |
4,000 hotels under the Accor group |
|
|
Best Western |
Best Western International |
USA |
4,000 Best Western hotels |
|
Choice Hotels |
Choice Hotels International |
USA |
6,000 locations under the Choice Hotels International group |
|
UK |
|||
|
Sheraton Hotels |
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide’s |
USA |
992 properties under the Starwood group |
|
Accor group |
France |
831 locations |
Marriott International
Marriott International is a worldwide operator and franchisor of hotels and related lodging facilities with more than 3,150 lodging properties within the US and in some 68 other countries and territories. The company was initially founded by J. Willard Marriott and is now run by son J.W. (Bill) Marriott. It has a variety of brands including but not limited to Marriott Hotels & Resorts, JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts, Renaissance Hotels, Ritz-Carlton, Autograph Collection Hotels & Resorts, Courtyard by Marriott, Marriott Executive Apartments and The Residences at the Ritz-Carlton.
Hilton
Hilton Hotels & Resorts is a well known international chain of full-service hotels and resorts founded by Conrad Hilton and currently owned by Hilton Worldwide. It has more than 540 Hilton branded hotels in 76 countries across the world. The company places marketing emphasis on business travel, but also owns and operates a number of resorts and leisure-oriented hotels in popular vacation destinations around the world.
Check out the latest Hilton hotel deals.
Hyatt Hotels and Resorts
Hyatt Hotels Corporation is an international operator of hotels with the Hyatt Center in downtown Chicago the company headquarters. The hotel chain offers business travellers a variety of worldwide luxury hotels to cater all of their needs.
Intercontinental Hotels Group
InterContinental Hotels Group is a global hotels company headquartered in the United Kingdom and considered the largest hotels company in the world measured by number of rooms. It has over 4,500 hotels in over 100 countries, with a total of no less than 646,000. It has a variety of brands including InterContinental, Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and Park Royal.
Check out the latest Intercontinental hotel deals.
Accorhotels
The Accor group is one of the world’s biggest hotel chain offering over 4,000 hotels in 90 countries. It has something for every taste and budget across all the different world’s regions from the Americas to Australia and New Zealand passing by Europe, Africa and Asia. It has a variety of well known brands from the high end luxury hotels such as the known Sofitel to more budget accommodations such as Europe’s low cost leaders the Etap Hotel and Formule1. Some of the great deals they currently offer include the possibility to win ten Free World Tour, a special gift on Accor’s 10th Anniversary or the possibility to stay 4 nights and get 1 night Free with Sofitel this summer at over 80 destinations worldwide.
Check out the latest Accor hotel deals.
Best Western
Best Western International is one of the world’s largest hotel chain with over 4,000 hotels, half in North America and the others set across nearly 80 countries. It is known for offering free Wi-Fi access hotspots in its hotels. Best Western International also owns Best Western Premier, an upscale hotel brand for some of its properties located in Europe and Asia. Bestwestern.com website offers great deals, discounts, directory of locations and an online reservations service.
Choice Hotels International
Choice Hotels International is a famous hospitality holding corporation offering various brands including Ascend Collection, Cambria Suites, Clarion, Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Econo Lodge, Mainstay Suites, Quality Inn, Rodeway Inn, Sleep Inn NS Suburban Extended Stay Hotel.
Holiday Inn Express Hotels
Holiday Inn Express is one of the world’s most famous mid-priced hotel chain part of the larger InterContinental Hotels Group. It offers a selection of 1,500 hotels worldwide at very competitive prices and is ideal for business travelers and short-term stays. The official site offers the worldwide locations and a reservations system.
Check out the latest Holiday Inn Express Hotel deals.
Sheraton Hotels & Resorts
Sheraton Hotels and Resorts is Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide’s largest and second oldest brand (Westin being the oldest). The Sheraton brand offer luxurious properties in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania and the Middle East.
Ibis Hotels
The Ibis brand is a network of 2, 3 and 4 star hotels, currently in 831 locations in 42 countries across North and South America, Europe, Asia and Oceania. It is known as the worldwide economy hotel offering consistent quality accommodation and services. It provides excellent value for money with all rooms fully-equipped and the hotel offering a 24/7 reception. The Ibis hotels are generally close to city centres, airports or rail stations and offer some of the best rates. It is part of the larger Accor group.
Check out the latest Ibis Hotel deals.
Top Travel Content websites
The following is the list of the top Content websites divided within the content type, wiki or the community type where the main focus is on user generated content in the form of post, pictures, ratings or comments.
|
Content |
Wiki |
Community |
|
Lonely Planet |
Wikitravel |
Virtual Tourist |
Lonely Planet
Lonelyplanet.com is the most popular travel content site offering a variety of travel news and advices, detailed maps as well as popular message boards and health information.
The Virtual Tourist
The Virtual Tourist is an interactive site aimed at sharing travel knowledge using a variety of tools including a chat, forums, travelogues and photos.
Wikitravel
Wikitravel is perhaps the biggest free travel project on the web offering a complete and reliable world-wide travel guide. It has literally thousands of up-to-date articles on almost all possible world destinations.
Time Out.com
Time Out is a global travel website offering weekly entertainment listings from over 25 of the world top cities.
AOL Travel
AOL Travel offers cheap airline ticket information, flight information, reservations and lodging to a various of world destinations.
TravelPod
TravelPod is one of the most popular travel blog on the web, enabling users to share their travels experiences and stories. It has currently a community of over 66,000 users and offers various travel resources and services.
Thorn Tree
Thorn Tree is the famous Lonely Planet’s bulletin board for travellers to exchange travel information and various tips.
Frommers.com
Frommers offers quality travel information on various destinations around the globe including activities, feature articles and guidebooks.
Fodors.com
Fodors.com is the online version of the world’s largest publisher of English language travel and tourism information and travel guidebooks.
TravelBlog
TravelBlog is a travel community site where visitors can share their own experiences with travelogues and photos from around the world.
Travel and Leisure Magazine
Travel and Leisure is an online magazine offering travel reporting as wells as access to destination facts and searchable archives.
Telegraph.co.uk: Travel
The travel section of the famous British newspaper offers a variety of travel news, information and advices.
Travellerspoint
Travellerspoint is a worldwide travel community offering free travel tools and quality information to help travellers before and during their trips.
Top Airline websites
|
Americas |
Europe |
Asia |
Australia |
|
Southwest |
Ryanair |
Emirates |
Qantas Airways |
Southwest
Southwest is one of the biggest airline in the US. Their sites offers various company information, flight schedules and reservations.
Delta Air Lines
Delta.com is an is an American airline site offering flight reservations, schedules and itineraries.
Ryanair
Ryanair is an Irish discount carrier offering a reservations system, flight schedules and company profile on their site.
American Airlines
The American Airlines site offers flight schedules, fares, special offers and the company’s frequent travel program.
EasyJet.com
Easyjet.com is a low cost travel airline offering cheap flights, hotels, car hire and parking .
United Airlines
United Air Lines is a major American airline and one of the world’s largest with 48,000 employees and 359 aircraft. It is a founding member of the Star Alliance, the largest airline alliance in the world and offers connections to over 1,000 destinations in over 170 countries worldwide.
Continental Airlines
Continental Airlines is a major American airline based in Houston, Texas, offering flight schedules, reservations, vacation specials and corporate information on their site.
British Airways
British Airways (BA) is the largest airline in the UK based on fleet size, international flights and international destinations. Their site offers online bookings, flight schedules and frequent flyer offers.
Lufthansa
Lufthansa is the flag carrier of Germany and the largest airline in Europe in terms of overall passengers carried. Their site includes downloadable timetables, photo gallery and online reservations.
Virgin Atlantic Airlines
Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited is a British airline owned by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group (51%) and Singapore Airlines (49%) headquartered in England near London Gatwick Airport. It operates between the United Kingdom and North America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia from its bases at London Gatwick Airport and London Heathrow Airport, using a mixed fleet of Airbus and Boeing wide-body aircraft. Their site includes online booking, frequent flyer information and special offers.
Emirates
Emirates is the Dubai based quality international airline which flies to over 80 destinations on 5 continents.
Aero Berlin
Aero Berlin is the German airline offering scheduled flights in Europe.
Japan Airlines
Japan Airlines website offers flights schedule, destinations, reservation, frequent flyer program , seat availability and general information.
US Airways
US Airways offers affordable airline tickets and last minute airfare to destinations all over the worlds.
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is the national airline of the Netherlands and is part of Air France-KLM. It operates worldwide scheduled passenger and cargo services to more than 90 destinations. KLM.com offers online booking, special offers, flight schedules, airline fares and frequent travel program.
LanChile
LanChile offers flight schedules, online ticket purchase, specials, destinations and frequent flyer program.
Air Canada
Aircanada.com include flight schedules, reservations, ground services, air cargo and vacation information.
Qantas Airways
Qantas Airways is a domestic and international airline based in Australia. Their site includes schedules and flight information.
Alaska Airlines
Alaska Airlines or alaskaair.com include flight information, schedules, reservations city guide, vacation packages and frequent flyer programs.
Alitalia
Alitalia is an Italian airline providing flight information, scheduling, online booking and various travel planner tools.
Iberia
Iberia is the Spanish airline offering flight information and company history in English and Spanish.
Aeroflot
Aeroflot is Russia’s most important International Airline with information on flight schedules, travel office, available on their site.
Turkish Airlines
Turkish Airlines site you can buy flight ticket, check in, make reservation, examine flight timetable and read arrivals.
TAM Airlines
TAM Airlines is the Brazilian carrier providing reservations, flight schedules and special Internet offers.
AirTran Airways
AirTran Airways is the American discount airline serving the eastern and central United States. Their website includes flight schedules and reservation.
Saudi Arabian Airlines
Saudi Arabian Airlines is the country’s national airline and their site offers general information, flight schedules and frequent flyer programs.
Cathay Pacific Airways
Cathay Pacific Airways is a Hong Kong based airline which include reservations, frequent flyer programs, flight schedules and employment on their site.
Frontier Airlines
Frontier Airlines is Denver based national airline with company information, employment opportunities, and travel schedule on their site.
Cebu Pacific Air
Cebu Pacific Air is the Philippines’ leading domestic carrier and low fare leader.
Jet Airways (India) Ltd.
Jet Airways is India’s based airline operating both international and internal flights.
Aer Lingus
Aer Lingus is Ireland’s national airline. Their website offers flight schedules, booking, company information and travel guides.
Qatar Airways
Qatar Airways is the international airline of Qatar. Their website have information on in-flight services, cargo and holiday destinations deals.
Swiss
Swiss is Switzerland’s national airline and their site contains flight schedules, time table and special offers.
Air France
Air France is the country’s national airline offering travel information, services, cargo, corporate, industries on their site.
AeroMexico
AeroMexico offers flight information, schedules and online reservations.
WestJet
WestJet is the Canadian low cost carrier with their website offering online booking, flight schedules, special fares and corporate inform.
Allegiant Air
Allegiant Air is US domestic low cost carrier with hubs in Las Vegas, Phoenix, LA and various Florida airports.
Top other travel websites
The last category shows all the remaining travel website that didn’t appear in the previous categories. Those include money converter sites, alternative accommodations portals , cruise lines as well as a visa site and the only city specific travel website on the top 100 list, Vegas.com, which offers all the needed information to fully enjoy sin city.
|
Money |
Alternative |
Passport & Visa |
Cruise |
City |
|
XE.com |
CouchSurfing |
Consular Affairs |
Carnival Cruise |
Vegas.com |
XE.com
Xe.com is the world’s most popular currency site offering free currency rates and other useful services such as money transfer.
Universal Currency Converter
UCC or Universal Currency Converter is part of XE.com and is the most popular currency converter with live foreign exchange rates.
CouchSurfing
CouchSurfing is a unique travel site offering free accommodations around the world with the use of profile listing, discussion groups and other services.
Vacation Rentals by Owner
Vacation Rentals by Owner or vrbo.com is one of the top vacation rental sites with over 75,000 listings and offering the largest number of any vacation rentals.
Bureau of Consular Affairs, U.S. State Department
Bureau of Consular Affairs is a US state site offering travel warnings, international adoption, passport and visa service and problems for American citizens.
HomeAway Vacation Rentals Worldwide
HomeAway Vacation Rentals Worldwide or homeaway.com offers over 65,000 vacation rentals all over the world from regular homes to luxury villas passing by beach houses and ski chalets.
X-Rates.com
X-rates.com is a popular currency exchange website offering various tools such as time plotted charts, conversion tables, calculator and historic lookups.
Carnival Cruise Lines
Carnival Cruise Lines is a well known mass-market cruise line with sailings to the Caribbean, Mexico, Europe and Alaska.
Royal Caribbean International (RCI)
Royal Caribbean International or RCI is a mass-market cruise line known for innovative large ships with features such as rock-climbing walls.
Vegas.com
Vegas.com is the official Vegas site and the city’s largest online booker for entertainment, hotels, restaurants, tours, golf and other services. It is the only city specific travel website on our list.
Vacations To Go
Vacations To Go is a cruise agency based in Houston which offers cruise search, ships, ratings and port information.
Owners Direct
Owners Direct is a British site offering holiday villas directly from the owners.
Visahq.com
Visahq.com is the complete database of visa requirements for all nations around the world.
RCI
RCI or Resort Condominiums International is one of the larger brokers of timeshare trades with over 4,700 affiliated resorts in over 100 countries and a membership base of approximately 3.6 million members worldwide.
Top 100 travel websites list
The following is the top 100 travel websites 2011 list in order of importance:
- Booking.com
- TripAdvisor
- XE.com
- Expedia.com
- Universal Currency Converter
- Priceline
- Southwest.com
- Kayak.com
- Yahoo! Travel
- Orbitz
- Delta Air Lines
- Ryanair
- Travelocity
- American Airlines
- Marriott International
- Hilton
- EasyJet.com
- Lonely Planet
- Hotwire
- Travelzoo
- Venere.com
- CouchSurfing
- United Airlines
- Continental Airlines
- Agoda
- British Airways
- Lufthansa
- Vacation Rentals by Owner
- The Virtual Tourist
- Bureau of Consular Affairs, U.S. State Department
- Wikitravel
- HomeAway Vacation Rentals Worldwide
- Virgin Atlantic Airlines
- Emirates
- Aero Berlin
- Japan Airlines
- Hostelworld.com
- Hyatt Hotels and Resorts
- Cheap Tickets
- Intercontinental Hotels Group
- US Airways
- KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
- Late Rooms
- Time Out.com
- SkyScanner
- Accorhotels
- Cheap Flights
- Travel Pod
- AOL Travel
- Hostelbookers.com
- Thorn Tree
- LanChile
- Air Canada
- Hotel.de
- HRS Hotel Reservation Service
- Qantas Airways
- Expedia.ca
- X-Rates.com
- Frommers.com
- Alaska Airlines
- Fodors.com
- Alitalia
- Iberia
- Aeroflot
- Best Western
- Turkish Airlines
- TAM Airlines
- AirTran Airways
- OneTravel.com
- Qatar Airways
- Wotif.com
- TravelBlog
- Saudi Arabian Airlines
- Carnival Cruise Lines
- Cathay Pacific Airways
- Choice Hotels International
- Frontier Airlines
- Cebu Pacific Air
- Travel and Leisure Magazine
- Jet Airways (India) Ltd.
- Aer Lingus
- Holiday Inn Express Hotels
- Royal Caribbean International (RCI)
- BedandBreakfast.com
- Swiss
- Sheraton Hotels & Resorts
- Air France
- Thomas Cook Retail Ltd
- Telegraph.co.uk: Travel
- Vegas.com
- Vacations To Go
- Ibis Hotels
- AeroMexico
- WestJet
- Owners Direct
- Ebookers.com
- Visahq.com
- Travellerspoint
- RCI
- Allegiant Air