Travelers Are Confident and Frequent Mobile Shoppers According to Study by Expedia Media Solutions and comScore

BELLEVUE, Wash., Nov. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- When it comes to mobile usage habits, a new custom study from Expedia® Media Solutions, the advertising sales division of global online travel leader Expedia, Inc., shows that travelers are increasingly comfortable and savvy at planning, researching and booking trips on the go.

Commissioned by Expedia® and conducted by comScore, the study examines consumer behavior on mobile devices and sheds light on the role of mobile in travel research, planning and booking, as well as the unique attributes of the travel demographic.  Travelers frequently turn to mobile devices for travel planning – whether conducting aspirational research, planning an existing trip or booking a last-minute getaway. With one out of every ten dollars spent online occurring on a mobile device, marketers who are ripe to target travelers should be adding mobile into their marketing mix.¹

Travelers frequently use smartphones and tablets to research and plan trips.

• Forty-four percent used a tablet or smartphone to plan their trip – while 48 percent used a mobile device to dream of their next trip
• Eighty-six percent of mobile planners already knew their destination when conducting research on a mobile device
• Forty-seven percent relied on friend and family recommendations and 40 percent relied on Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) for destination ideas
• Deals and promotions (64 percent), photos (55 percent) and recommendations (38 percent) are the most useful types of content for those seeking trip ideas 

Travelers are comfortable making purchases on mobile devices.

• Of travelers who own a mobile device, 61 percent have made a purchase on a tablet in the last six months while 51 percent have made a purchase on a smartphone, showing that travelers are more likely to purchase travel on tablets versus smartphones
• Of those who have booked travel on a mobile device, 80 percent of smartphone users and 90 percent of tablet users would do so again 

Travelers will continue to use mobile to plan travel, but easy-to-use apps will drive usage.

• Of the 44 percent who plan travel on a mobile device, 44 percent used an app
• Nearly 60 percent of mobile airline and 56 percent of hotel bookers used an app to book their reservation
• Accessibility (43 percent), ease of use (35 percent) and app availability (33 percent) drive travel bookings for smartphone users

Advertisers can take advantage of accessibility and easy-to-use touchscreens to create effective mobile ad solutions and campaigns that enhance the overall user experience.  As mobile users continue to turn to apps for planning, there's potential to provide incremental reach and increase engagement time with travel brands, thereby spurring higher category reach, as well as mobile purchase and booking conversion.

"With the steady growth of mobile adoption and content consumption, we've seen an increase in on-the-go travel planning – more than one-third of mobile device owners, according to the study," said Noah Tratt, global vice president of Expedia Media Solutions.  "The findings also show a significant number of consumers rely on OTAs for destination ideas, and we've developed a mobile strategy to help our advertisers reach travelers during critical planning phases, allowing them to influence customer decisions and optimize the experience closer to purchase."

Expedia Media Solutions currently offers mobile targeting solutions for Expedia.com®, Hotels.com® and Hotwire®. In addition, Expedia Media Solutions expects to launch sponsored search results – Expedia's Travel Ads program – on Expedia.com mobile and display ads on Hotels.com mobile later this month.  Additional mobile display ad opportunities will be available in Q1 2013. For more information on Expedia Media Solutions, please visit www.advertising.expedia.com or to view the full study results visit http://www.advertising.expedia.com/en-us/about-ems/press-room/NewsletterPDFs/PhoCusWright-2012.pdf

About Expedia Media Solutions

Formed in 2007, Expedia Media Solutions is dedicated to building online and offline media partnerships for travel and non-travel brand advertisers and to enable them to leverage the unique media value of Expedia's network of leading travel brands and global points of sale. For more information, visit www.advertising.expedia.com.

About Expedia, Inc.

Expedia, Inc. is the largest online travel company in the world, with an extensive brand portfolio that includes some of the world's leading online travel brands, including:

• Expedia.com®, the world's largest full service online travel agency, with localized sites in 30 countries
• Hotels.com®, the hotel specialist with sites in more than 60 countries
• Hotwire®, a leading discount travel site that offers opaque deals in nine countries on its eight sites in North America and Europe
• Egencia®, the world's fifth largest corporate travel management company
• eLong™, the second largest online travel company in China 
• Venere.com®, the online hotel reservation specialist in Europe
• Expedia Local Expert®,  a provider of in-market concierge services, activities and experiences in 18 markets worldwide
• Classic Vacations®, a top luxury travel specialist

The company delivers consumers value in leisure and business travel, drives incremental demand and direct bookings to travel suppliers, and provides advertisers the opportunity to reach a highly valuable audience of in-market travel consumers through Expedia Media Solutions. Expedia also powers bookings for some of the world's leading airlines and hotels, top consumer brands, high traffic websites, and thousands of active affiliates through Expedia® Affiliate Network.  (NASDAQ: EXPE)  For corporate and industry news and views, visit us at www.expediainc.com or follow us on Twitter @expediainc.

Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners.  © 2012 Expedia, Inc.  All rights reserved.  CST: 2029030-50

¹ comScore Mobile Measurement Q2 2012 study

Contact:
Casey Ibbetson
Zeno Group
+1-310-566-2282
[email protected]

SOURCE Expedia Media Solutions