Already more than 60% of Chinese consumers primarily use their smartphone to research their vacation and the only way is up for smartphone and app usage says EyeforTravel’s new Chinese Travel Consumer Report 2017-2018
Chinese
consumers are far more smartphone and app-focused as they research and book their
travel than their Western counterparts, with 60.3% using their smartphone as
their main research device, versus 30.4% who mainly use a desktop or laptop
finds the
research.
As Chinese travellers move on to the booking phase, smartphones become less dominant than in the research phase but still leads desktop. When making a flight booking, 41.3% choose to use their smartphone, compared to 35.2% who prefer to use a desktop/laptop. Only 8.3% book using a tablet and 6.2% buy their flight face-to-face with a travel agent. Similarly, with accommodation 41.8% of respondents prefer a smartphone, 34.2% a desktop/laptop, and 8.7% of consumers use a tablet.
Within this, apps are comprehensively beating browsers for Chinese users’ time and spending. Across all flight bookings in EyeforTravel’s survey 34.4% used a smartphone app versus 6.9% who made their booking using a web browser. Once again, there is a similar pattern for accommodation bookings, underlining the unique dynamic of the market.
Furthermore, smartphone usage for travel planning is set to grow as younger generations are more smartphone-focused. Among 18-35 year olds 65.5% primarily use their smartphone to research travel but just 22.9% use desktops or laptops. For those aged above 56 47.7% prefer a smartphone and a substantially higher 43.7% go through a desktop/laptop.
Not only this but younger generations put more emphasis on travel, spending proportionally more of their annual income on tourism. They are also benefiting from improving education standards and economic conditions in China, further increasing their discretionary spending power. These conditions will make the smartphone the dominant device of the future when trying to reach the Chinese travel consumer.
As Chinese travellers move on to the booking phase, smartphones become less dominant than in the research phase but still leads desktop. When making a flight booking, 41.3% choose to use their smartphone, compared to 35.2% who prefer to use a desktop/laptop. Only 8.3% book using a tablet and 6.2% buy their flight face-to-face with a travel agent. Similarly, with accommodation 41.8% of respondents prefer a smartphone, 34.2% a desktop/laptop, and 8.7% of consumers use a tablet.
Within this, apps are comprehensively beating browsers for Chinese users’ time and spending. Across all flight bookings in EyeforTravel’s survey 34.4% used a smartphone app versus 6.9% who made their booking using a web browser. Once again, there is a similar pattern for accommodation bookings, underlining the unique dynamic of the market.
Furthermore, smartphone usage for travel planning is set to grow as younger generations are more smartphone-focused. Among 18-35 year olds 65.5% primarily use their smartphone to research travel but just 22.9% use desktops or laptops. For those aged above 56 47.7% prefer a smartphone and a substantially higher 43.7% go through a desktop/laptop.
Not only this but younger generations put more emphasis on travel, spending proportionally more of their annual income on tourism. They are also benefiting from improving education standards and economic conditions in China, further increasing their discretionary spending power. These conditions will make the smartphone the dominant device of the future when trying to reach the Chinese travel consumer.
- A survey of more than 2,000 Chinese travel consumers.
- Economic analysis and projections for the Chinese economy.
- Summaries and outlooks for Chinese domestic and outbound travel.
- Consumer booking, research, and trip spending behaviours.
- Lead times for flight, accommodation and tours and activities.
- Geographic and demographic breakdowns.
- More than 50 figures, tables and charts profiling the Chinese travel consumer.