Today’s travellers are spending over five hours researching their trips – longer than a flight between Toronto and Vancouver – according to new research from Expedia Group, which has also revealed how and where travellers plan and book travel, the growing role of social media and advertising influence, top online resources, and the new online path to purchase.
Expedia Group’s “Path to Purchase” study, conducted by Expedia Group and Luth Research, is designed to shed light on traveller preferences and behaviours throughout the online shopping journey and illustrates where and how they plan and book travel, from the typical number of travel website visits and page views to destination considerations, trip resources, and influences at every stage. Among the results, taken from a sampling of consumers across seven countries, including Canada:
The growing role of travel content in the booking process
The research revealed the significant volume of content that travellers consume to inform their decision to travel, as they seek to refine their options in the 45 days prior to booking a trip online. On average, across the seven countries surveyed:
• Travellers view 141 pages of travel content in the 45 days prior to booking a trip, and as high as 277 pages for travellers in the US, with these page views distributed throughout their path to purchase.
• In the early stages of planning, research is more spread out (about 2.5 page views per day), while it increases exponentially in the few days prior to a booking, ending with 25 page views on the day of purchase.
It also highlighted the top resources that travellers are using in the 45 days leading up to purchase:
• OTAs (80%), search engines (61%), social media (58%), airline websites (54%), and meta-travel websites (51%) are the top five resources used by most travellers.
• And four in five travellers visit an OTA at some point before making a travel purchase, indicating that travellers likely visited an OTA for inspiration, research, or planning purposes, even if travellers booked elsewhere.
Canadian stats
In Canada, travellers spend more than one month thinking about their trip (four days longer than the average) and nearly 40 days planning. Canadian travellers’ booking occurs over two months prior to going on their trip, four days shorter than the average.
The research also reveals that most Canadian travellers (62%) do not have a particular destination in mind or are considering multiple destinations prior to choosing where to go, highlighting the opportunity for destination inspiration in the planning and research phase.
Looking for destination inspiration
With most travellers revealed they were undecided on where they would like to travel to before they start the trip planning process, significant numbers also said that they are influenced by what they consumed on social media and in advertising.
• Of those that use social media in the path to purchase, 77% use it for inspiration.
• Nearly one in five (19%) travellers said advertising influenced their decision to book a trip.
• Vacation rental guests (26%) and hotel guests (22%) are also more likely to be influenced by advertising.
“The traveller path to purchase is often complex, and full of twists and turns. This research highlights just how much thought and consideration travellers put into planning a trip in the weeks leading up to booking, as they seek to niche and refine their choices,” says Expedia for Business SVP and CMO Cheryl Miller.
“This means there are many opportunities to connect with travellers before they make their decisions, underlining the importance of partnership, given that it’s essential to show up across multiple touchpoints and beyond your owned brand channels, as frequently as possible along this path.”
Referencing Expedia’s Travel Agent Affiliate Program (TAAP), Miller added,
“By providing actionable insights to help reach, inspire, and engage travellers during their path to purchase, we’re pleased to provide B2B travel partners with the tools required to convert their guests and customers.”
To see the full report, including a Canada country “snapshot,” click HERE.