Budget day traffic trends - were Travel Weekly readers following it?

In my last end-of-week traffic review I speculated about a selective interest in APD stories - the bias being towards stories about concrete decisions on the tax rather than stories led by industry criticisms of it.

That was just under a week before yesterday's budget, in which something did change. 

Here's the top five for Budget 2011 day, March 23:

1. Budget 2011: Osborne confirms no APD rise this year
2. Spanish airport strikes 2011: News and dates 
3. BA alters Tokyo flights as radiation fears mount 
4. Budget 2011: Backing for small businesses welcomed 
5. Virgin Atlantic signs deal with Jetblue 

To be strictly accurate nothing changed, in that the tax isn't going up this year. But until reports of a freeze began circulating on Monday 21 we fully expected a rise in November, so when George Osborne told the country there wouldn't be one, it was a solid piece of news. Readers responded accordingly.

Elsewhere, only one Budget story makes the top five. Even if I discount the Spain strikes page at two (whose numbers are bumped by searches from consumers not yet convinced the water is safe) the story that comes up to fifth is about demand for domestic holidays - the next Budget piece remains down in ninth place.

Up there instead are two stories about what airlines are up to, one about what travellers are shopping for this year, and one about the details of a strike threat which nobody can say for sure is over.

One of the questions I always ask myself before hitting a link is, "Will this contain something I need/want to react to?" - and projecting that same question onto Travel Weekly readers is a good rule of thumb for predicting which stories will get the most traffic.