Online travel shoppers have many choices to make as they are booking a trip, from where to go and how to get there, to what site to book on. Today, at Phocuswright 2016 in Los Angeles, we released findings from the new study, The Traveler’s Path to Purchase that we commissioned with comScore. The new study identifies trends of the American, British and Canadian online travel shopper throughout the inspiration, consideration and booking phases.
Here are a few key takeaways from the research. For more findings and insights, download the full study {{cta(’14e0b3f5-e2c9-4d7a-8e10-94349a00853b’)}}
- Digital travel consumption is on the rise. Digital travel consumption is widespread across all three regions – consumers are spending 806 million minutes in Canada, 2.4 billion minutes in the UK and 8.7 billion minutes in the U.S. And while it’s growing rapidly in each country, we are seeing the growth rate vary wildly, with a year over year growth of 18% in Canada, 44% in the UK and 41% in the U.S.
- Mobile passes desktop for travel content consumption. In the U.S. and the UK, significantly more people engage with travel content on mobile devices than on desktops (75% and 82% on mobile respectively), however Canadian travelers spend slightly more minutes on desktop (65%) than mobile devices.
- Online bookers increasingly engage with travel content in the weeks leading up to a purchase. In the 45 days before booking, overall Canadians visit the most travel sites with 161 visits, Americans make 140 visits and British travelers make 121. More travel sites are visited in all three countries as the consumer gets closer to booking their trip.
- Shoppers turn to OTAs and travel information sites most. Accounting for around one third of site visits for British, American and Canadian travelers, OTAs have the greatest share of visitation when looking at the booking journey as a whole. Travel information sites claim the second highest share across the board. These resources account for 21% of site visits in the UK and U.S. and 26% in Canada.
Considering the complexity of travelers’ purchase behaviors, brands have multiple opportunities to connect with — and ultimately influence — consumers at touchpoints along the way. Advertising can play an important role during the 45-day period leading up to online travel booking; 64% of Canadian travel bookers, 59% of UK travel bookers and 47% of U.S. travel bookers recalled seeing a travel ad while shopping for or booking travel.
For additional insights and findings, download the full study here, and send us a note on Twitter or LinkedIn with the hashtag #TravelersPathtoPurchase.
You can access the full Path to Purchase research here: https://info.advertising.expedia.com/travel-consumers-path-to-purchase-research-for-marketers
