A new industry study released recently, Empowering inspiration: The future of travel search, identifies consumers´ trend-setting behaviour and motivation when shopping online for travel, besides ascertaining their experience during destination selection, shopping and booking processes. The study also details the key trends and predictions on how consumers want to be able to search for travel online in the future.
The key findings are as under-
The frustration travellers face when planning and booking travel
All consumers face frustration during the destination, shopping and booking process; however, those in emerging markets are more frustrated than their developed counterparts.
New ways in which travellers would like to search for travel
In the developed markets, nearly 50% of travellers had a particular place in mind, whereas in the emerging markets, it was only about a third of travellers. Catering to these travellers is advantageous, as attracting shoppers earlier in the purchase funnel broadens their audience and reduces their reliance on search and referral traffic.
How travellers want to use mobile devices and social networks when planning and sharing travel experiences
Three in 10 travellers in Europe currently have no interest in using their mobile phones for travel-related activities, but U.S. consumers show levels of interest comparable to emerging markets for mobile features such as alerts, check-in, etc. Mobile device usage for travel is more than twice as common in emerging markets, most notably in India, where nearly 24% of travellers research destinations online on their phones.
Author: Anoop .N
Delivery Manager,Teknokraaft Info Systems Pvt. Ltd