Travel Bookings From Mobile Devices Grow 20%

Criteo report reveals mobile growth increas­es reach and rev­enues in trav­el book­ings.

Pat Hong By Pat Hong from Linkdex. Join the discussion » 0 comments

In many ways, the trav­el indus­try has always been one of the most inno­v­a­tive ver­ti­cals with­in dig­i­tal. With its long pur­chase cycles, com­plex, emo­tive mar­ket­ing, and a high­ly com­pet­i­tive brand land­scape, trends with trav­el have long been a pre­cur­sor for wider trends with­in dig­i­tal. Recent­ly, the hottest top­ic for trav­el dig­i­tal mar­keters has been mobile. What’s the low down on mobile usage and con­ver­sions in the trav­el indus­try?


A new study from adver­tis­ing tech­nol­o­gy provider Criteo, has revealed a stark rise in the num­ber of trav­el book­ings being com­plet­ed via mobile devices. In an analy­sis of more than 300 mil­lion book­ings, respon­si­ble for more than $150 bil­lion in book­ing val­ue over the first half of 2014, Criteo found book­ings from mobile devices grew by 20 per­cent.

Here’s a run­down of the key find­ings from Criteo’s Trav­el Flash Report:

  1. Mobile book­ings up 20 per­cent in the first two quar­ters of 2014, far out­grow­ing the rate of desk­top book­ings.
  2. Aver­age book­ing val­ues on mobile now equal to, or high­er than, desk­top.
  3. Aver­age book­ing val­ues for air trav­el are now 21 per­cent high­er on mobile devices than on desk­tops, and 13 per­cent high­er for car rentals.
  4. The increase in book­ings and aver­age book­ing val­ues com­bines have result­ed in much high­er rev­enue for mobile.
  5. Sea­son­al trends and region­al vari­a­tions influ­ence oppor­tu­ni­ty. The World Cup drove increas­es in Latin Amer­i­ca whilst US trav­el grew 20 per­cent in first six months of 2014.
  6. Sea­sons only tell part of the sto­ry… OTAs (online trav­el agen­cies) got most of the first half growth in book­ings.

Criteo also sin­gled out three key themes they drew from their find­ings.

1. Mobile Is Driving Growth And Bookings

An over­all 20 per­cent increase in book­ings from mobile devices far eclipsed the growth in desk­top book­ings at just 2 per­cent. The data implies that for brands, a mobile strat­e­gy is now cru­cial.

Criteo’s analy­sis revealed that online book­ing are grow­ing, and mobile is both dri­ving that growth and increas­ing its share.

2. Mobile Advertising Is More Valuable For Brands

The growth and vol­ume of book­ings via mobile have increased, but cru­cial­ly aver­age book­ing val­ues have increased in line with this growth, in some cas­es even exceed­ing that of desk­top book­ings. With the excep­tion of pack­age hol­i­days, aver­age book­ing val­ues have held con­sis­tent­ly on mobile devices for a num­ber of trav­el prod­ucts. It’s a strong sig­nal that the chan­nel is becom­ing more valu­able for adver­tis­ers.

travel-verticals-bookings

3. Mobile Bookings Are Highly Seasonal

Dif­fer­ent regions exhib­it unique sea­son­al vari­a­tions in the num­ber of desk­top book­ings. In the U.S., there’s a peak in the num­ber of trav­el book­ings toward the end of March, like­ly due to a com­bi­na­tion of both spring break and ear­ly book­ings for the sum­mer sea­son.

travel-seasonal-booking-trends

In Europe, trav­el book­ings rise for the sum­mer sea­son. Book­ings start to rise in Feb­ru­ary, con­tin­u­ing through to the sum­mer months.

The strong growth in the peri­od in Latin Amer­i­ca was due to the FIFA 2014 World Cup.

The find­ings indi­cate that mar­keters need mar­ket­ing strate­gies that respond to vari­a­tions in book­ing pat­terns and val­ues. Sea­son­al vari­a­tions and events can be a huge oppor­tu­ni­ty, but only if you’re able to accu­rate­ly tar­get con­sumers accord­ing to their online behav­ior.

How Can Travel Brands Make The Most Of Mobile?

Brands can now be fair­ly con­fi­dent in the fact that they can reach con­sumers on mobile devices. Top of the agen­da for trav­el brands should be opti­miz­ing their entire mobile expe­ri­ence, and putting the same invest­ment in opti­miz­ing mobile con­ver­sions as that of desk­top.

Chan­nel spend between desk­top and mobile adver­tis­ing should be inte­grat­ed, with deci­sion­al process­es as agile as pos­si­ble to make use of real time and sea­son­al oppor­tu­ni­ties.

Mobile adver­tis­ing now pro­vides an increased con­ver­sion prospect for high-val­ue trav­el prod­ucts, from pack­age hol­i­days to last-minute flights.


Increas­ing smart­phone and tablet con­ver­sions present a mas­sive oppor­tu­ni­ty for trav­el brands. It pro­vides a whole new way to reach con­sumers, and adds val­ue to the mar­ket rather than chip­ping away at the desk­top book­ing share. Brands need to devel­op “mobile-first” mar­ket­ing strate­gies, that also take into account sea­son­al and region­al vari­a­tions. Win­ning in the space will require brands to be agile, and to uni­fy their con­tent and user expe­ri­ences across devices, chan­nels, and plat­forms.

Pat Hong

Written by Pat Hong

Editor at Linkdex/Inked, Linkdex

Pat covers the SEO industry, digital marketing trends, and anything and everything around Linkdex. He also authors Linkdex's data analysis and reports, analysing the state of search in various industries.

Inked is published by Linkdex, the SEO platform of choice for professional marketers.

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