S'porean travellers most online-savvy when booking holiday accommodation

SINGAPORE - Asia consumers are the most online-savvy when booking travel accommodation, according to a study commissioned by AsiaRooms.com and Lenovo.

75 per cent of respondents indicated that when it comes to booking travel accommodation for leisure and business trips, reservations were done online (10 per cent higher than the global average) and Singapore ranks the highest at 84 per cent.

The study also aims to gain greater insights to the travel booking habits of consumers globally which includes the usage patterns of mobile devices. Amongst the markets surveyed, Asia takes the limelight and leads the global ratings in travel bookings online, mobile searches, and mobile purchases.

The use of mobile devices for travel accommodation booking is a rising trend in Asia, according to a joint press release by AsiaRooms.com and Lenovo.

When surveyed, 59 per cent of respondents in Asia indicated that searching for travel accommodation online via mobile ranks as their top usage. Asia came in 13 per cent higher than the global average, with Thailand ranking the highest at 65 per cent amongst the countries in Asia.

The second most popular activity was to compare prices of travel accommodation online, with 50 per cent of the respondents from Asia stating they do so (10 per cent higher than the global average). 33 per cent of consumers in Asia have said that they book travel accommodation via their mobile devices (8 per cent higher than the global average).

The study also revealed that 58 per cent of consumers in Asia are using their mobile devices to make online purchases. 63 per cent of consumers in Asia have also said that they are likely to use mobile devices in the future for making travel accommodation booking (10 per cent higher than global average).

The top reasons quoted for respondents not wanting to use the mobile device more often is that content is hard to see on the mobile device (40 per cent) and that the Internet connection on mobile devices is slow or unstable (35 per cent).

The survey findings are based on the responses of over 12,000 online participants in over 25 major international markets, covering the Americas, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, and Oceania.