A tour operator boss recently disclosed privately that mobile and its impact on the travel industry and consumer behaviour drives him “mad”.
Why?
“I have no idea if my customers will use their mobiles to look for our products, let alone buy anything.”
So while those in the industry that have embraced mobile (many, many, many, these days) raise their eyes to the sky, this infographic courtesy of Tealeaf is for the doubters, those still questioning the importance of handheld devices in wider ecommerce.
And with mobile being “made for travel”, one of the phrases people will often hear, surely it is time to wake up and smell the coffee, or at least the coffee buying app on a smartphone.
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About Kevin May
If there are still naysayers, I’d suggest they must have blinkers on and will not be able to catch-up.
And FYI – typo in text. Hear not here
@g – oopsie, fixed.
Thanks Kevin, it’s useful information. Also highlights a strong need for a new mobile experience, not just a slashed version/copy of the web one – “80% of consumers abandon a mobile site if they have a bad user experience”
Travel remains a far less frequent and more complex merchandising and sales proposition (tour product even more so), but like the slow adoption of travel kiosks (relative to banking), mobile travel will pod along with monitoring apps pacing adoption of buying apps.
Thanks Kavin, these Infographic are intersting and also give a good undertanding of how one can use it as tool to inform + advertise.
I think from Indian point of view Smarphone usage will sore up by 2015 as all middle class population from metros to tier3 will have Smartphone acces. However buying thru mobile still looks very small share of travel biz, Many hotels, transporters and Restaurents in major indian tourist places (those located in away from cities) are not even savy with email . I guess mobile shopping in travel biz for india as movement can be pushed back to 2017 or even 20 may be if the economic condition of the my homeladn does not improve let alone worsen.
CHeers!
Kiran Damle,
Mumbai, India
At Gogobot we saw a 5 x increase in trip plan creation when we introduced that feature in our mobile app. Based on this,and massive activity of other app features, we know that users are keen to use mobile for all aspects of travel – planning and sharing. Pundits will raise the issue of roaming charges, but this will become a non issue over time.