The travel industry has been urged to leverage smartphone and tablet applications as figures emerged showing that half of all mobile users are planning trips on their devices.
Speaking at the Travel Appy conference in Sydney yesterday, Nielsen mobile audience measurement regional manager Christopher Masanto forecast that just under 40% of Australian households will own a tablet by the end of 2012 with the steady upward trend in smartphone ownership set to continue.
“If you do have an application on someone’s phone you have the potential to weave your brand into the very core of their life,” he said.
Masanto revealed that in a 2011 survey, 14% of online Australians said they would like better travel apps and 25% of online Australians wanted an app which related to transport.
“The needs of travelling actually align very well to the functions that smartphones offer,” he said.
While 18% of households in Australia currently own a tablet device, a further 20% are intending to acquire one – a “fantastic metric” for companies looking to invest in applications, according to Masanto.
Meanwhile, Google mobile experience director Oliver Weidlich referred to recent Google statistics found that smartphone behaviour tends to be spontaneous and responsive to environment.
“They suggest that 47% start planning a trip on their mobile device and then transition to another device,” he said.
Viator engineering vice president Jeff Lewis added that smartphones are a constant companion, while laptops and PC’s are used solely for work and tablets for relaxed viewing at home.
