Upwardly Mobile: Tracking Mobile Usage Growth

While digital channels have been firmly established as the top source of travel information, mobile innovation is challenging companies to keep up with changing consumer preferences and media habits. There is no question that the mobile web is growing, but when it comes to destination selection, mobile usage varies greatly by market.

As part of Brand USA’s annual Market Intelligence Survey, we asked intercontinental travelers (international in Canada and Mexico) what sources of information they use when selecting travel destinations. Figure 1 shows the use of the internet via different devices.

Figure 1

Compared to mature markets, respondents in emerging markets, such as China and India, were much more likely to indicate mobile website usage. While mobile usage is higher in these markets, there is no corresponding decline in desktop use. In fact, desktop is the predominant platform in every market studied. Interestingly, tablet use has a higher response rate than mobile in every market except Korea. This exception may be due to Samsung’s hold on the Korean market and their fondness for large mobile phones such as the Galaxy Note. Surprisingly, respondents from Japan indicated one of the lowest mobile usage rates, despite being one of the earliest markets to adopt advanced mobile functionality. Though the market is generally tech savvy, Japanese travelers continue to gravitate towards more traditional travel planning resources like travel agents and desktop websites.

Brand USA’s website visit exhibits a similar trend — desktop still remains the strongest source platform to date. In January 2015, 61 percent of visits to the DiscoverAmerica.com website are from desktop users. European visitors have higher desktop usage compared to Asia.

One reason for the desktop’s continued overall popularity is travelers’ tendency to plan travel at work on a desktop or laptop. Travel websites typically see a peak on Mondays, perhaps because getting back to the daily grind can serve as inspiration for a vacation escape.

Mobile users are making inroads, however, as its share of visits to DiscoverAmerica.com has risen 76 percent in the past year. Taking both of these trends into account, Brand USA incorporates responsive design into its digital development. Responsive websites automatically adapt how content is displayed by reorganizing the layout (e.g., picture sizing, text placement) based on the dimensions of screen/window across devices.