Survey Reveals Social Mobile Habits of Travelers

Expedia has released the results of a study examining the mobile device habits of Americans during their summer travels. Expedia's survey, which was conducted online by Harris Interactive among more than 2,000 U.S. adults, of which 46% took a vacation this summer that included an overnight stay. The study looked at how adults in the United States utilized mobile devices and applications while traveling this summer. Among the findings:

 

More than half of online adults (61%) own and use a smartphone, e-reader device or tablet device. There is also a distinct inverse relationship between standard mobile device usage and smartphone usage driven primarily by age. Younger online adults are significantly more likely to own and use a smartphone than their older counterparts, while older adults ages 55+ are significantly more likely to own and use a standard mobile phone than younger online adults.

 

Memories and sharing socially are important to travelers connected with mobile devices. Eighty-six percent of online U.S. adults who had an overnight summer vacation took pictures while on their most recent summer vacation. Of those vacationers, 58% of them shared those pictures through social media during their most recent vacation.

 

Vacationers are active social sharers via Facebook first. Fifty-four percent of online U.S. adults who took photos on their most recent vacation report sharing pictures on Facebook during their trip and 55% percent report sharing pictures after their most recent vacations. Only 9% of report sharing pictures via Twitter during their trip, while 7% report sharing pictures via Twitter after their trip. Finally, 6% report sharing their pictures during their vacation via Instagram, while 7% report sharing their pictures after their vacation via Instagram. Overall and across all networks, 59% of online adults who took pictures on their most recent overnight vacation report sharing photos after their vacation, whereas 58% shared almost exclusively during their vacation.

 

Road-trippers prefer non-mobile GPS while driving. With 63% of online adults who took a summer vacation including an overnight stay used a car this summer traveling via the open road, 52% of drivers had a smartphone and drove using GPS preferred on-dash GPS for navigating while only 37% preferred their smart phones.

In addition to the study conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Expedia, Expedia's mobile app team took a look at the booking habits and behaviors of Expedia.com® users. They found that mobile devices are becoming go to tools for the traveler on the go. Among the findings:

 

Mobile helps travelers get a room. Close to 70% of users booking rooms through the Expedia Hotels mobile app or Expedia's mobile optimized site are looking for travel within a 24-hour period.

 

Location and convenience trumps luxury. Most rooms booked via mobile are those at hotels with ratings between two and three stars (41.5% for 2-star properties and 37.25% for 3-star properties) and within a 10-mile radius of the customer's current location.

 

Survey Methodolgy:
This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of Expedia from August 10-14, 2012 among 2,247 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact Sarah Keeling ([email protected]).