Travel and spending patterns – Singapore and other Asian travellers lead in online accommodation bookings

In the past 12 months, travellers in Asia proved most inclined to book their business and leisure trips online, with 75.2% of respondents making online bookings this year compared to the global average of 65.4%. This is a 4.9% increase from last year’s index and is slightly more than double the global average increase of 2.3%.

Singapore travellers topped the list with 84.3% of respondents having made an online booking in the past 12 months. On the other end of the spectrum, the Latin American region reflected a 2.8% decrease in online bookings, with only 48.8% of respondents having booked online in the past 12 months.

Travellers less price-sensitive about accommodation costs than last year

Respondents are still generally prudent with their purse strings, with 57.7% of them stating affordability as a primary cause for lower accommodation usage in the next 12 months. However, price is less of a factor in influencing accommodation decisions this year – there is a 9.4% decrease in price sensitivity compared to the last index.

Additionally, compared to the last index, there was a 9.1% decrease in number of respondents who stated that the global economic situation would be a primary cause for lower accommodation usage in the next 12 months.

The most significant change in price sensitivity is reflected in Asia, with 17.5% lesser number of respondents stating cost-savings as a primary cause for lower accommodation usage in the next 12 months. 31.5% of them stated that future accommodation usage would be affected by the general economic situation; this is an 18.4% drop from last year and is also lower than the global average of 34.2%.

Women in Asia Pacific buck global trends in overseas leisure travel

Approximately 60% of men and women who booked accommodations online in the last 12 months went overseas for leisure. However, greater disparity between the genders for overseas leisure travel is reflected among regions. In Europe, US and Latin America, men travelled overseas for leisure more than their female counterparts, at 2.8% more and 1% more respectively.

On the other hand, women in the Asia Pacific buck the global trend with 53% of women having travelled for leisure overseas compared to just 51% of men in the last 12 months.

(Picture shows Carlson Wagonlit Travel’s Lisa Aekroyd talking about her leisure travel pursuits at WITX in Bangkok last month)

Search and Booking patterns – more prefer to pay on check-out

Globally, 29% of all respondents indicated that they prefer to pay for their accommodation only during check-out as opposed to paying a basic room rate in advance (24%) or paying an advance deposit (23%). Worldwide, the preferred mode of payment by majority of travellers is by credit/charge card (70%) followed by debit card (37%).

Travel goes social

A majority of travellers (75%) are active on an average of one to three social media platforms, visiting these sites between one to three times daily. Around the world, people are becoming increasingly influenced by social media for their travel decisions.

Nearly half (53.4%) of all respondents indicated that people within their social media circles influenced their decisions on online accommodation usage; more than a quarter (28.2%) also shared that even strangers on social media sites managed to influence their travel-related decisions.

Travel goes mobile

On average, more than half (58%) of the respondents in this year’s index indicated that they own a mobile phone with both Wi-Fi capabilities and mobile data plan subscriptions. The number of people who own tablets with Wi-Fi and data subscription plans also jumped to 27%, up by 8% from last year, driven mainly by the increase in Asia.

This increase in ease of connectivity has led to a surge in volume for travel-related searches and purchases with almost half (46%) of the respondents from this index searching for their travel accommodations with mobile devices. This is a 9% increase from the last index.

Respondents from Asia were most at ease with using their mobile devices for their travel accommodation needs, with 59% of them using their devices to search for travel accommodations online in the past 12 months, compared to the global average of 46%. Respondents from Asia also showed the highest propensity to make a travel-related transaction online.

The usage of mobile devices for travel-related decision-making is set to increase as more than half (53%) of respondents have indicated a likelihood of using these devices in the future.

Commissioned by AsiaRooms.com and in partnership with independent market research firm VisionOne UK, these findings are based on the responses of over 12,000 online participants in over 25 major international markets, spanning Asia Pacific, America and Europe.

Clarence Lin, Brand Development Lead, AsiaRooms.com, said, “With increasing Internet penetration coupled with faster access speeds, more consumers are embracing the World Wide Web for their purchases, including hotel accommodation stays. AsiaRooms.com’s business model is poised to capture this growing pool of Internet-savvy travellers.”