comScore announced the results of a study of the European online travel industry, revealing that 108.6 million Europeans - or half of the total European online population aged 15 and older - visited a travel related site during March 2007, an increase in traffic of 6 percent versus March 2006.

According to comScore, Expedia Inc. led the European travel category with 18.5 million European unique visitors aged 15 and older during March. The second most-visited European travel site was ViaMichelin, with 13.5 million European unique visitors, followed by the TUI Group's 12.5 million European unique visitors.

"Half of the European online population visited a travel site in March - it is clearly one of the most popular activities on the Internet," commented Bob Ivins, managing director of comScore Europe.

comScore also revealed that Europeans who visited travel sites in March spent an average of almost 37 minutes browsing travel-related content. Within the travel category, online travel agencies garnered the most time spent, 19 minutes on average, followed by airline sites (17 minutes) and hotel sites (15 minutes).