New Study Identifies New Online Travel Shopping Trends

A new industry study, Empowering inspiration: The Future of Travel Search, identifies trend-setting consumers' behaviour and motivations when shopping for travel online, and identifies their experience during the destination selection, shopping and booking processes.

The study also details the key trends and predictions for how consumers want to be able to search for travel online in the future.

The Amadeus-commissioned study, conducted by travel industry research authority PhoCusWright, surveyed 4,638 travellers in the U.S., U.K., Germany, India, Russia and Brazil. In addition to consumer insights, PhoCusWright conducted 18 executive interviews with thought leaders around the world to gain industry perspective on where travel search is headed.

Although the travellers under review are not representative of the mainstream consumer, they have sophisticated shopping needs and represent the early adopters whose current behaviours and preferences are leading indicators of behaviour in the future.

Key findings include but are not limited to:

Frustrations

All consumers face frustrations during the destination, shopping and booking process, however, those in emerging markets are more frustrated than their developed counterparts. For example in the shopping process, 47% of U.S. travellers experience frustration online, compared to over 78% of Russian travellers. This is due to information overload and the lack of confidence that they are getting a good deal.

New Search Trends

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. Furthermore, more than four in ten travellers across the markets are flexible about travel dates, thus tools that help determine where and which travel dates have the lowest price have widespread appeal. It is time to think outside of the traditional city pair/travel date box.

Mobile Devices / Social Networks

Three in ten 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.

Looking ahead, the report also looks at how new technologies may change travel planning in the future, including but not limited to:

• The truly private "private sale": Marketplaces around the world have been flooded with promotions, deals, and now flash sale brands that tout discounts with no context of whether an individual would be interested in the product. As consumer segmentation and behavioural targeting to consumers becomes more sophisticated, sellers will be able to microtarget promotions to specific consumers, offering products that are actually relevant for the buyer.

• Cumulative Intelligence: With hundreds of options, online shoppers are overloaded. Eventually, programmes will learn from an individual´s behaviour over time by observing and aggregating common patterns. Microsegmentation will help companies analyse behaviour and deliver increasingly intelligent results.

• Smart systems and virtual private assistant: Devices will become smart and interconnected, and will store and make sense of information consumers look at. The programme will recognise and process inputs from the sites consumers visit and what they do on them, and will act as an assistant on the consumer´s behalf. 

David Brett, President, Amadeus Asia Pacific said, "With increasing access to the internet and a growing middle-class, industry experts are predicting that Asia Pacific is on course to dominate the online travel market, with emerging markets like India leading the way. India's online travel market alone is expected to see growth of seven billion (USD) by the end of the year, the biggest in the region. While the opportunities are plentiful, travel players looking for a piece of the growing pie will need to demonstrate a keen understanding of their local customers’ behavior and adopt the right technology to engage them." 

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