eMarketer: Travelers Look to Smartphones as Real-Time Travel Guides : Brands are slow to seize mobile opportunities outside of booking Aug 10, 2012 – eMarketer News
A new eMarketer report finds consumers are using smartphones to guide their
travels from start to finish, whether that’s for last-minute bookings,
connecting to destination-related information or seeking personalized
recommendations. But marketers have been slow to take advantage of
smartphones as on-the-go travel guides, placing the majority of their
attention on mobile booking.
The new report, “The Mobile Traveler: How Smartphones Are
Changing the Customer Journey,” analyzes findings from dozens of
third-party research providers and interviews with industry executives,
answering key questions about the opportunities and challenges the mobile
traveler presents, including:
How often are consumers booking travel at the last minute through
smartphones?
How do smartphones solve travel-related customer service challenges?
In what ways are consumers using smartphones in transit and once they
reach their destinations?
Travelers are taking their mobile devices on the road in ever-increasing
numbers, using them to plan travel in real-time.
In a Prosper Mobile Insights study earlier this year, only 2.2% of
respondents said they left their smartphones or tablets at home while they
traveled. And nearly 80% of those surveyed said they took their mobile device
with them and used it “all the time.”
Travelers’ near-constant attachment to smartphones and tablets while on
the road provides a unique opportunity to marketers, one that many are
neglecting. Nearly 40% of the 9,000 accommodation owners and managers that
responded to a 2012 TripAdvisor survey said they didn’t even have
mobile marketing in their budgets. And more than one-third of respondents
said they devoted less than 5% of their budget to mobile marketing.
The travel and hospitality marketers that are paying attention to mobile tend
to place the emphasis on mobile booking. While eMarketer forecasts mobile
booking to grow from 11.9 million bookers in 2012 to 36.3 million in 2016, it
is a long way from being fully optimized. Marketers risk missing out on
unique opportunities for mobile marketing throughout the customer journey if
they too narrowly focus on mobile booking.
Key Takeaways from “The Mobile Traveler: How Smartphones Are Changing
the Customer Journey:”
Smartphone travel booking is a long way from being fully optimized.
Personalized mobile travel content in context will become the go-to
travel guide.
Smartphones will be a windfall for travel marketers.
“As mobile marketing becomes more sophisticated, travel marketers will
have unprecedented access to their customers,” said eMarketer.
“How those customers respond to this extended relationship will shape
the future of travel services and loyalty marketing.”
