Catering to a smartphone traveller tribe – a challenge for the travel start-ups
Are you a travel sector start-up looking to revamp or strategise your digital footprint? Try and find out what mobile travellers do in order to receive personalised content for researching, planning and booking their travel.
An Amadeus study reveals that 4 out of 10 travellers are willing to share data in the interest of personalisation. Around 50 pc of the users download apps to receive these special offers. Amadeus reveals that it is the sheer craving for personalisation that is driving mobile-hooked travellers around the world. For travel companies looking for a smart digital strategy, it is thus important to send tailor-made messages to your customers based on their age, location and loyalty status.
Trends to watch
Here are some of the trends identified by Amadeus in a study that aims to capture the rise of mobile-app empowered traveller.
- Almost all travellers come with a smartphone; 87 pc of the global travellers use a smartphone
- More than one device used for planning and booking; 47 pc of the travellers started booking on smartphones and then moved to tablets and PCs or vice-versa
- Half of the smartphone users have a travel app installed
- App-usage for travel brands has increased over 100 pc in the past 12 months
Trends that also throw a light on the behaviour of consumers on three stages, namely pre-trip, during trip and post-trip are also quite interesting.
Pre-trip: While 45 pc of travellers have used an app to plan their travel, 30 used a mobile app to find a hotel. The study found that exactly 15 pc of the travellers downloaded a travel app just before their vacation.
During trip: Flight check-ins are most popular. 46 pc of holiday makers and 61 pc of the business travellers do a smartphone app flight check in. Moreover, 52 pc of the travellers use their apps during their trips to research, navigate and post check-in to locations on social media.
Post-trip: As many as 7 out of 10 travellers would share their pictures after they come back from a trip. And more interestingly, travellers searching for their next destination immediately after returning.
What is relevant content?
In an age of the hyper connected world, an Expedia study on what the consumers want as content on their smartphone while travelling reveals that 30 million people look for travel information on a mobile phone every month. 53 pc of the people do their necessary research on their handheld devices, mostly smartphones.
Weather, restaurant reviews, things to do, hotel information, photos, videos and what other travellers are saying about the place remain top priorities.
As a travel company, you should be ahead of others in terms of providing this personalisation ahead of time. Focussing on relevant, fresh content and encouraging your travellers/customers to come back and provide compelling content for their trips will make things really work for you.
And, mobile wallets…
The idea of mobile wallets has changed the perspective of how travellers buy their trips in Asia. While there were only 85 million mobile payments in 2012, looking four years ahead, in 2016 there were 163.6 million mobile wallet transactions reported by Gartner, a statistics portal. When compared to the North America, Europe, Latin America or the Middle East the rise in mobile payments is most significant in Asia especially in China and India.
Get in touch with Asiacom to know more about how you can strategise your travel business digitally…