Tnooz, Kevin May - Total travel bookings via mobile devices are expected to overtake those from desktops in 2016 in China, the first country in the world to do so.
And this isn’t just behaviour within particular segments or brands, as has happened in some markets and services, but the entire online travel industry in the China.
This of course is the so-called “leapfrog” effect that many have been predicting for a number of years.
In the US, for example, total number of mobile bookings in travel are estimated to be in the region of 8-10% by 2016, with total online at around 45%.
China’s total online travel volume for 2017 will be in the 35-38% bracket, with mobile accounting almost 25% of the figure.
Also, speaking at the WebinTravel conference in Singapore this week, Phocuswright analyst Maggie Rauch says China is way ahead of other countries in terms of the numbers of people who have used a smartphone to book a hotel or flight.
Chinese – 53%
Brazil – 27%
US – 18%
Australia – 15%
Russia – 14%
Germany – 10%
France – 9%
UK – 9%
Lastly, another trend that appears to be largely exclusive to China (at present) is the dominance of applications for flights bookings.
Rauch says 75% of flight bookings on mobile devices are coming via branded apps, rather than on their respective mobile websites.
Asia-Pacific will be the largest online travel market within the next few years, with it currently on a par with Europe (27%) having already overtaken North America (25%).
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