Consumption of Digital Travel Content Sees Double-Digit Growth Year-Over-Year
17 November 2016 - 7:00AM
Business Wire
New Study from Expedia Media Solutions and
comScore Reveals Extensive Planning and Booking Journey for
American, British and Canadian Travelers during the 45-Day Path to
Purchase
A new study conducted by comScore and commissioned by Expedia®
Media Solutions, the advertising sales division of Expedia, Inc.,
explores how the interaction between travel booking websites and
other influential online and offline touchpoints can impact the
purchase journey for American, British and Canadian travelers.
The 2016 Traveler’s Path to Purchase study examines the 45-day
period leading up to online travel booking, including desktop and
mobile device usage, content consumption, resources utilized,
destinations considered and the role of digital advertising in the
decision-making process, as well as behavioral comparisons across
the three countries. The research shows that consumption of digital
travel content is on the rise with a growth rate of 44 percent in
the U.K., 41 percent in the U.S. and 18 percent in Canada. Travel
content is also widely consumed in each country by 75 percent of
digital users in the U.K., 70 percent in Canada and 60 percent in
the U.S.
While the growth rate, number of users and time spent on digital
travel content varies by country, the study found that travelers in
the three countries share some behavioral similarities when it
comes to travel planning. During the research and booking process,
digital users are actively seeking travel content and are receptive
to new information; nearly one third or more of online travel
bookers across the three countries were influenced by
advertising.
In the U.S. and the U.K., significantly more people engage
with travel content on mobile devices than on desktops, making
mobile the platform with the largest digital reach across the
travel category
- Canadian travelers are slowly shifting
away from desktop-only usage at 36 percent in 2016 compared to 46
percent in 2015; but overall, more minutes are still spent on
desktop than mobile devices in the country
- In the U.K., multi-platform usage
represents 54 percent of total digital travel users in 2016 – up
from 37 percent in 2015 – which is significantly higher than the 30
percent multi-device usage in the U.S. and 29 percent in Canada,
showing that British travelers are the most device-agnostic
users
- The U.S. market is ahead in mobile
travel content engagement, surpassing desktop engagement more than
a year ago, but year-over-year mobile growth was relatively
stagnant compared to Canada and the U.K.
Travel is a considered and time-consuming purchase, leading
travel bookers to make hundreds of visits to travel sites in the
weeks leading up to a purchase, and on average, weekly travel site
visits increased leading up to booking
- In the 45 days prior to booking a trip,
Canadians made 161 visits to travel sites, Americans made 140
visits and British travelers made 121 visits
- Across all three countries, more than
66 percent of travel bookers said search engines and friend or
family recommendations were used most during the inspiration phase
of their trip planning, followed closely by OTAs at nearly 50
percent
- During the research phase, share shifts
to OTAs and hotel sites, as more than 37 percent of travel bookers
in Canada, the U.K. and U.S. say they used these resources to
narrow their options, and usage remained strong during the
consideration phase
- OTA, hotel site and airline site usage
is consistent throughout the purchase path, but across all three
markets, conversion was strongest on airline sites and OTAs
- Throughout the booking path, OTAs have
the highest engagement across travel site categories, accounting
for more than 30 percent of total site visits, followed by travel
information sites with more than 20 percent
Destination decisions are influenced by multiple factors, and
more than 50 percent of British and Canadian online travel bookers
started the research process with multiple destinations in
mind
- In the U.K. and Canada, the majority of
users considered two or more destinations, while in the U.S., 65
percent of travel bookers considered only one destination
- Eleven percent of online travel bookers
across all three markets used social media while researching
destinations
- Travel bookers in the U.K. research
European trips far more any other locale (61 percent), while
destinations in Asia accounted for 13 percent of research
- At 31 percent, U.S. travel bookers
research U.S. destinations the most, followed closely by Europe at
27 percent and Latin America (14 percent)
- Europe accounted for 33 percent of
destinations researched by Canadian travel bookers, followed by
Latin America (26 percent) and Asia (18 percent)
The travel advertising marketplace is crowded, but there is
ample opportunity to influence decisions, particularly during the
inspiration and research phases
- Thirty-eight percent of travel bookers
in Canada and 30 percent of travel bookers in the U.K. were
influenced by advertising when considering more than one
destination
- Sixty-four percent of Canadian travel
bookers, 59 percent of U.K. travel bookers and 47 percent of U.S.
travel bookers recalled seeing a travel ad while shopping for or
booking travel
- The largest potential for advertising
impact occurred during the initial stages of the booking path, as
54 percent of British, 66 percent of American and 73 percent of
Canadian travel bookers noticed advertising when they first started
planning a trip
- As booking nears and users are exposed
to more advertising, recall declines as much as 44 percent,
illustrating that timing is everything and advertisers should
target travelers early in booking path in an effort to influence
decisions
“Despite broad variances in the number of American, British and
Canadian digital users, the time they spend consuming online travel
content, and the devices they use to access information, the key
influences and resources utilized throughout the booking path were
often consistent across the three countries,” said Matthew Reichek,
Vice President of Product & Analytics at Expedia Media
Solutions. “These insights, coupled with the finding that nearly
one third or more of online travel bookers were influenced by
advertising, reveals powerful opportunities for marketers to
efficiently reach travelers from multiple markets during the path
to purchase.”
To view the full study please visit:
http://bit.ly/travelers-path-to-purchase
About Expedia Media Solutions
Formed in 2007, Expedia Media Solutions is dedicated to building
online and offline media partnerships for travel and non-travel
brand advertisers and to enable them to leverage the unique media
value of Expedia’s network of leading travel brands and global
points of sale. Expedia Media Solutions is a division of Expedia,
Inc. For more information,
visit www.advertising.expedia.com.
About Expedia, Inc.
Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) is the world’s largest online
travel company, with an extensive brand portfolio that includes
leading online travel brands, such as:
- Expedia.com®, a leading full service
online travel company with localized sites in 33 countries
- Hotels.com®, a preeminent global
lodging expert operating in more than 65 countries and 35 languages
with its award winning Hotels.com® Rewards loyalty program
- Orbitz Worldwide, including leading
U.S. travel websites Orbitz.com and CheapTickets.com, as well as
ebookers, a full service travel brand with websites in seven
European countries
- Expedia® Affiliate Network (EAN), a
global B2B brand that powers the hotel business of leading
airlines, top consumer brands, online travel agencies and thousands
of other partners through its API and template solutions
- trivago®, a leading online hotel search
with sites in 55 countries worldwide
- HomeAway®, a global online marketplace
for the vacation rental industry, which also includes the VRBO,
VacationRentals.com and BedandBreakfast.com brands, among
others
- Egencia®, a leading corporate travel
management company
- Travelocity®, a leading online travel
brand in the U.S. and Canada delivering customer service when and
where our customers need it with the Customer 1st Guarantee
- Hotwire®, inspiring spontaneous travel
through Hot Rate® deals
- Expedia® Media Solutions, the
advertising sales division of Expedia, Inc. that builds media
partnerships and enables brand advertisers to target a
highly-qualified audience of travel consumers
- Wotif Group, a leading portfolio of
travel brands including Wotif.com®, Wotif.co.nz,
lastminute.com.au®, lastminute.co.nz and travel.com.au®
- Classic Vacations®, a top luxury travel
specialist
- CarRentals.com™, a premier online car
rental booking company with localized sites in 13 countries
- Expedia Local Expert®, a provider of
online and in-market concierge services, activities, experiences
and ground transportation in over a thousand destinations
worldwide
- Venere.com™, an online hotel
reservation specialist in Europe
- Expedia® CruiseShipCenters®, a provider
of exceptional value and expert advice for travelers booking
cruises and vacations through its network of over 225 retail travel
agency franchises across North America
For corporate and industry news and views, visit us at
www.expediainc.com or follow us on Twitter @expediainc.
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owners. © 2016 Expedia, Inc. All rights reserved. CST:
2029030-50
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Crafted CommunicationsCasey WaltersMeSo@craftedcom.com
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