The key moment of the travel industry in 2014: Mobile booking replaces desktop

Forty percent.

This number was brought up along with other important data during the Expedia-Comscore panel at the Phocuswright conference, but it was lost in the sea of ​​data. No one noticed it.

But, take note: 40% of visitors to US travel sites come from mobile. That’s right, 33% come from desktop, and 27% use both devices.

Let's simplify this data. If you only target PC users, you can only reach 60% of US users. What does this mean for the global reach of the World Wide Web?

Whether the data on mobile devices is accurate is not the point. The point is that this share is so large that it has begun to erode the traffic of traditional websites. Looking at the way teenagers use devices, there is almost no doubt about how the world will change in the future.

So mobile devices like smartphones and tablets are where we are headed. Only gamers and media geeks still buy home PCs. Students and people working from home use laptops. But even very cheap laptops are losing out to tablets, which can use many cloud-based apps. We are already on our third generation of tablets, and the first generation is still kept for the kids or in the guest room.

In 2014, many important moves became easy to understand in a mobile-first world.

• Uber can be called the world's purest mobility company, and many observers have predicted that Uber will emerge from the mobility revolution.

• TripAdvisor saw the potential in the tours and activities market and acquired Viator, a relatively mature company.

• Priceline acquired another more mature company, OpenTable, for $2.6 billion, and it must have had its own ideas.

2015: Booking

Some data suggests barriers to booking will be lowered.

• Expedia and Comscore found that 80% of users who booked using a mobile device would book again.

• Screen sizes have gradually increased, with the average size now approaching 5 inches (up from 4 inches in 2012).

• Responsive websites and optimized mobile booking experiences have gone mainstream.

• A 2014 report by Criteo found that mobile bookings are growing at 10 times the rate of desktop bookings.

Everything suggests that 2015 will be a pivotal year for mobile bookings, and many companies will learn that it’s going to be a tough road.

via: Travel Weekly