Mobile web provides a digital channel that might have been tailor-made for holiday travel companies. Its on-the-go immediacy and convenience has resulted in 25% of all mobile users reaching for their phones to research, plan, compare and book their holiday. Travel is in the top 5 categories that people access on their mobiles and the reach of mobile has now outstripped fixed use.

If you are a young female aged between 18 and 34, earning £10-40K and you’re on your lunch break at work between Tuesday and Thursday, you’re the prime user of mobile to research your next holiday, says our new Mobile Insights Travel report. But if you’re an older male in a lower social class you’re more likely to be scanning the national lottery and Daily Mail or checking the weather forecast.

FLYING HIGH WITH MOBILE WHY AN OPTIMISED MOBILE STRATEGY MATTERS IN THE TRAVEL SECTOR

30APPS (2%)

1907SITES (98%)

HOLIDAY RELATED VISITSOCTOBER 2013

TOP iOS APPS

SKYSCANNER

TRIPADVISOR

BRITISH AIRWAYS

APP LIST LARGELY FOCUSSED ON MAJOR BRANDS & DEFINITIVE TASKS

ACTIVITY STRONGLY CONCENTRATED IN THE TOP 4/5 E.G.:

TOP SITES

TRIPADVISOR.CO.UK

BOOKING.COM

LASTMINUTE.COM

THE AGGREGATORS/COMPARISON SITES HAVE THE HIGHER LEVELS OF REACH VS. BRAND SPECIFICS E.G. EASYJET.COM, BRITISHAIRWAYS.COM, THOMASCOOK.COM

TOP SITES

TOP iOS APPS

Using data to steer messaging

Our insight can be used to trigger relevant messaging to the primary audience; timed to tap into the desire to escape routine and office life. It will also focus marketing efforts on the challenge of attracting a male audience, older holiday researchers and those with families and from higher social groups. Similarly, weekend browsers may require a different set of messaging tactics.

Digital media, being a key component of customers’ purchase journeys, the number of touch points available in the travel category are prolific. Mobile offers greater personalisation, on-going engagement opportunities while the consumer is out and about and the chance to disrupt the purchase journey and steer it in a different direction.

Low frequency, high variation

As the top three sites, TripAdvisor.com, Booking.com and Lastminute.com only account for 21% of sessions and a similar percentage of time spent, there’s a long tail of sites with 90% of users time spent across the top 450 sites. The question this raises for the marketing department is how to gain traction in such a vastly populated channel and optimise messaging and penetration.

12:00

13:00

14:00

PEAK USAGE TIME

TUE

WED

THU

FRI

SAT

SUN

MON

» PEAK HOURS FOR HOLIDAY SITE/APP VIEWS ARE MIDWEEK BETWEEN 12:00 -14:00. LUNCH TIME BROWSING WHEN AT WORK.

NUMBER OF SESSIONS /TIME SPENT LOOKING ATHOLIDAY RELATED SITES

3.2 SESSIONSPER MONTH

20 MINUTESPER SESSION

PEAK USAGE TIME

NUMBER OF SESSIONS /TIME SPENT LOOKING ATHOLIDAY RELATED SITES

Who is using apps?

Holiday research is largely site rather than app-based, with only 6% of iOS users relying on app only. Apps tend to be focused on major brands and definitive tasks, and although they slightly over-index in terms of usage, they still remain firmly in the minority. Whilst TripAdvisor’s experience mirrors the industry norm with an 85/10% split in site/app usage, Skyscanner bucks the trend with more app-centric activity with 62% of visitors using the app. Of course, task-oriented properties work better with apps, but it’s interesting to note that the app attracts a slightly more even gender mix, across higher incomes.

Marketers may wish to investigate a more app-led future to gain traction with affluent audiences. Even the research/comparison sites that tend to gain a greater number of traction browsers who flick between sites might benefit from the closed ecosystem that apps offer to encourage repeat usage.

How mobile fits into overall digital strategy

Optimising mobile web is all about timing and relevance. Our insight will help integrate all elements of the digital strategy to create a more fulfilling experience for the user and encourage greater frequency of use.

Few travel companies have a mobile only strategy so it’s also important to balance mobile web with fixed use. British Airways offer an app but 17% of their users also visit britishairways.com. The 46% of fixed online users who access travel-related sites may be declining 5% year on year, but it is still represents a significant proportion. People using the app also use hotel sites such as Hilton; they are not searching for package holidays and tend to be more affluent.

When we release our January 2014 data shortly, we’ll compare and contrast the variance in trends across the low booking season to the industry’s peak season and chart how mobile optimisation delivers to the hyper-connected traveller.

6%

83%

11%USE

APPS ONLY

USECOMBINATION

OF BOTH

USESITES ONLY

» LARGELY FEMALE - 62%

» YOUNGER AGE GROUPS - PARTICULARLY 18-34

» EARNING BETWEEN £10K-£40K

18-34

£10k - £40kEARNINGS P/A

HOLIDAY SITES / APP USERS

GfK Mobile Insights is a leading-edge business intelligence service that delivers actionable insights into consumers’ mobile web activity. Based on a unique combination of subscribers’ usage information and world-class consumer data and research expertise, we help our clients to create winning mobile web strategies to enrich consumers’ lives, gain competitive advantage and improve their bottom line.

GfK Mobile Insights is offered by GfK, one of the world’s leading market research companies that turns research into smart business decisions.