Some interesting take-aways from the latest Criteo Travel Flash Report showing not only the increase in bookings via mobile devices in general but also a boost in travel bookings made via mobile applications.
The research shows apps accounted for 57% of bookings in the first quarter of 2016 - that's up just a few percentage points on the previous quarter but has been steadily growing over the past 18 months.
The quarterly report also breaks down the numbers into devices to show, for example, that for online travel agencies in the US, bookings made via smartphone at 81% were far greater than those made via tablets.
More than half of flight bookings are also coming via smartphones while for package holidays, the majority, 63%, come via tablets which is unsurprising given how much goes time and effort is devoted into researching and booking the annual holiday.
As per the slide above, almost a third of mobile bookings for OTAs specialising in hotels come from smartphones while hotels themselves only see 11% of bookings come via smartphone - likely because of the ability to compare hotels and prices via an OTA.
It's a similar story for last-minute bookings (less than 24 hours) on OTAs with 60% made via smartphones in March. Hotels themselves do not come out so well with only 30% of last-minute bookings coming via smartphone.
Further findings in the report reveal the use of a number of devices in booking travel with a third of all US travel bookings now made using more than one devices.
The report can be downloaded here.
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