15 Mind-Blowing Stats About Digital Trends In Travel And Hospitality

For travel and hospitality brands, providing superb experiences starts long before their customers’ trips ever begin.

15 Mind-Blowing Stats About Digital Trends In Travel And Hospitality

For travel and hospitality brands, providing superb experiences starts long before their customers’ trips ever begin. From researching to booking, those experiences often take place across multiple digital channels and platforms. The following stats show just how big of a role digital plays for both travelers and the companies that serve them.

  1. In 2018 digital travel sales worldwide increased 10.4% to $694.41 billion. (Source: eMarketer)
  2. Forty-eight percent of U.S. smartphone users are comfortable researching, booking and planning their entire trip to a new travel destination using only a mobile device. (Source: TrekkSoft)
  3. Ninety percent of travelers worldwide say they expect a personalized experience when they book their travel. (Source: Medium)
  4. Eighty-two percent of travel bookings in 2018 were completed via a website or mobile app, without human interaction. (Source: TrekkSoft)
  5. Cosmopolitan Las Vegas found that hotel guests who text its chatbot, Rose, spend up to 30% more money than those who don’t. (Source: Skift)
  6. Experience is the name of the game in travel today. In fact, 67% of high-income travelers said they would rather spend their money on activities than a nicer hotel room. (Source: Skift)
  7. Seventy-seven percent of airports and 71% of airlines said they are planning major programs or R&D in biometric ID management over the next five years. (Source: SITA)
  8. Sixty-nine percent of travelers said they have used voice search while planning a trip. (Source: Travelport)
  9. In the U.S., 26% of travel searches in the fourth quarter of 2018 occurred on a mobile device. (Source: Sojern)
  10. Almost two-thirds of guests (62%) with complaints said unfriendly staff are the most frustrating part of their stay. (Source: ALICE)
  11. Search plays a big role early on in the travel booking journey. In 2018, 31% of accommodation searches started on search engines, up from 23% in 2017. (Source: McKinsey)
  12. Nearly one-third (32%) of consumers said they prefer communicating with a hotel by walking up to the concierge, front desk, or other staff member directly. As for how different generations prefer to make special requests, nearly one in every seven (15%) Millennials said they want to text message with hotels, almost one in five (17%) of 35- to 54-year-olds want an email survey from the hotel before they arrive, and roughly two-thirds (66%) of those 55 and older prefer to call hotels directly. (Source: ALICE)
  13. As competition heats up in the travel industry, hotels are increasingly focusing their strategies on building loyalty. In fact, the loyalty efforts of the top five hospitality enterprises grew from 30% to 47% last year. (Source: L2)
  14. Eighty-four percent of consumers said they book travel through bundling sites like Expedia.com or Kayak vs. going directly to an airline and/or hotel. (Source: Humley)
  15. More than half of travel apps are deleted after a month. (Source: CleverTap)