Just two weeks ago, Memorial Day kicked off the 2016 summer season, bringing with it the promise of sunshine, barbecues, outdoor activities and, of course, some much-needed vacation time.
As many Americans gear up for summer and begin taking the trips they’ve been thinking about all year, we wanted to dig deeper and find out more about how they use their mobile devices for researching and booking flights, accommodations and activities. So, we surveyed 1,000 mobile users in the U.S. across our mobile ad platform to find out. Here’s what we discovered:
The transition to mobile
Two years ago, eMarketer declared that “half of digital travel researchers will check out flights, hotels and more not only on a desktop or laptop PC but also (or only) via mobile.”
They also predicted that in 2016, 85% of Internet users will research travel online (with 62% of them doing so via mobile) and that 50% of users will book online, over two-fifths of them doing so via mobile.
Our survey findings confirm that projection, as we discovered that mobile is now #1 for travel research and booking among U.S. travelers.
We asked travelers whether they prefer to research on desktop or mobile, and 66% preferred mobile. Of this group, 70% of those that fell into the millennial demographic stated they preferred their smartphones for research over desktop.
And when we asked which digital platform they prefer to book on, 51% said they preferred mobile. Overall, 85% of travelers use a mobile device to book travel activities!
The mobile-first traveler
We took a look at the mobile-first habits and found that 45% rely on mobile apps when booking accommodations and activities; one in three travelers said that mobile apps like TripAdvisor and Yelp are their go-to resource when researching. This is definitely part of a deeper trend of consumers spending more time in high quality apps that add real value to their “everyday.” In fact, travel apps are among the top 5 categories of apps where mobile ad campaigns are seeing higher levels of engagement.
Read rest of the article (and Infographic) at Opera Media Works
