Travelport charts digital league

SINGAPORE, 16 November 2018: Travellers surveyed worldwide say mobile devices are now as vital for travel as for other aspects of their life whilst the desire for new technologies increases.

New technologies include voice search, e-payment and digital room keys, to simplify and enhance their travel experience.

These are among results from the Travelport 2018 Global Digital Traveller Survey of 16,000 travellers from 25 countries. Mastercard highlighted key findings.

Mobile remains crucial, travellers want a consolidated experience

Almost half of those surveyed have booked and paid for an entire or part of a trip through their smartphone.

Nine out of 10 now have apps to make their life easier when at their destination; with maps, airlines, weather and social media topping the list of favourites.

On average, travellers use 10 to 12 apps throughout the searching, booking and traveling parts of their trip.

The top three most important features identified by leisure travellers in their travel apps are the ability to search and book flights (68%), real-time flight alerts throughout their journey (64%) and being able to see an entire trip itinerary in one place (67%).

Only around a fifth of travellers currently use itinerary management tools.

New technologies grow in prominence

Over half of global travellers use voice to search either during booking or whilst traveling – up 3% from last year.

Over two thirds (68%) of Indonesian travellers use voice search, such as Apple Siri or Amazon Alexa. However, in Japan, Singapore and some parts of Europe, the proportion of travellers using voice search is less than 45%.

Almost half of all respondents, think the ability to pay using Apple/Android pay (Touch ID) is important or very important.

Over half of business travellers asked said they wanted to be able to check in to their hotel via an app, rather than at a reception desk. 50% also want to use a digital room key to unlock their hotel room door from their phone.

Travellers want technology to simplify the travel experience

Most travellers asked would happily use biometric scanning to reduce the need for waiting in security lines. This proportion is particularly high among Asian countries, with 80% in Singapore and 84% in Indonesia indicating.

Over two-thirds of travellers think digital boarding passes make travel so much easier.

2018 Global Digital Traveller League Table

Travelport 2018 Global Digital Traveller Survey also includes the 2018 Digital Traveller League Table, which ranks two Asian countries – India and Indonesia – as the top two countries with the most digitally advanced travellers. India has been crowned champions for the second year in a row, and Indonesia was ranked third last year.

Travellers in each country base the standings on a combination of the main indicators of digital usage for travel-related purposes. For example, India’s top position is maintained due to 69% of the country’s travellers using voice search, over 60% wanting digital room keys and 88% saying they are influenced to travel by friends on social media.

Travelport’s managing director for Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, Mark Meehan commented: “India and Indonesia have grown around the smartphone and it’s no surprise to see them remain the most digitally engaged in our survey. They both have large, young populations of ‘digital natives’, which helps them score in the top two places in our league table. Companies that want to do business in these countries need to understand how digitally advanced they are and meet the travellers in the digital platforms they’re using, like instant messaging apps and social media. Travel brands need to provide the seamless, integrated experience travellers have told us they want.”

The countries are ranked as follows (*= new country surveyed in 2018):