A 20% overnight increase in searches would send the business analysts at most OTAs into mathematical meltdown, delving deep into the data to identify the patterns and create order from the chaos.
Or they could just look out the window.
Lastminute.com saw a 22% overnight increase in searches from the UK one weekend last year - the reason being that the clocks went back, resulting in darker evenings and ramping up Brits' desire to travel.
Specifically, searches for New York saw the biggest hike at 43%, followed by Milan, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Las Vegas.
And lastminute also saw visits to its spa pages increase by 25%.
It makes sense of a simplistic level in that the clocks going back signals the start of winter, winter can be a bit grim in the UK and looking at overseas trips or an indulgent spa break is a way to escape.
But the release also references an even bigger increase in searches when Storm Clodagh hit the UK last November, with flight searches up 42% during that weekend.
The connection between this one-off and transitory event and the desire to visit Barcelona is less clear.
A similar pattern emerges from Italy, where the increase in searches for international flights on lastminute.it when the clocks went back was higher than the UK at 36%. And when southern Italy was hit by floods on November 1, searches for international flights went up by 36%.
Lastminute says that brands - in and out of travel - need to be aware of external events and be able to flex their campaigns accordingly. Christmas is an established peak for travel marketing, but there are "big opportunities" for businesses who have lined up marketing activity around less obvious calendared events, such as the start of daylight saving time.
External events are clearly a driver of consumer intent to travel. Personalization and targetting do have a role to play, but for many the inspiration to travel is less complicated than we might think.
NB Image by Sabphoto/BigStock.com