Given how much 'do or die' discussion there is around mobile, it's perhaps surprising that more than a third of UK travel companies have no mobile presence.
That's according to a study from the Internet Advertising Bureau which doesn't give much insight as to why that might be but does question the strategy given further research showing the average person uses a 'connected device' 34 times a day.
In September and October, IAB took an in-depth look at the mobile activity of the top 50 UK travel companies, based on ad spend.
The study is divided into five categories focusing on whether websites are optimised for device, optimised for search, mobile applications/single user approach, transport companies and mobile ticketing and star performers.
So key findings are:
Website optimisation:
- 48% have a mobile optimised site of which three quarters have a transaction element.
- Six out of the 50 are using location-based services on their sites
Search:- 42% of companies are optimising for search on mobile.
- Four travel companies are optimising search campaigns but don't have an optimised site.
Mobile apps:
- 34% of travel companies have no mobile presence.
- 50% of travel companies have an app of which 56% have a transactional element.
- 10 companies out of the 14 that are transactional are employing a single user approach whereby items placed in a shopping basket online also appear in the mobile app. This is interesting given the noise being made by the likes of Thomas Cook et al around digital focus and being 'connected at every level'.
Mike Reynolds, mobile executive for IAB says:
"Different advertisers often have different needs, and what’s right for some might not be for others. The key message is for them to think about why they aren’t investing in mobile?"
Transport and mobile ticketing:
The apps for 'transport' companies such as airlines, coach, ferry and cruise companies were checked for whether they enable ticketing with only three (all airlines) out of a possible 17 offering a mobile ticketing service.
Star performers, scored for mobile and tablet optimisation, responsive websites, ios app, Android app, ios tablet app, Android tablet app and optimised search were Trivago, Thomas Cook and Hotels.com.