TripAdvisor is focused on getting Australian tourism businesses on board with mobile technology as it confirmed the number of visitors coming to its site via the channel had tripled in the first quarter.
Global vice president sales Julio Bruno told Travel Today that the independent review site's mobile app is now downloaded around 28 times per minute and, in 2012, accounted for between 10% and 15% of total sessions.
"Unique visitors doubled between 2011 and 2012," he said. "While I can’t give you 2013 numbers yet, you can imagine the progress we are making there."
Bruno revealed that, in the first quarter of 2013, 62 million average unique monthly visitors came to the site via mobile which represents growth of 300% year on year.
"Online is yesterday, mobile is today," he said. "Being online is de rigueur, that’s what you have to have to start thinking is what are you going to do with your mobile offering."
TripAdvisor has partnered with Samsung so the Galaxy 4 comes preloaded with the TripAdvisor app, with the technology firm expecting to move around 300 million units, according to Bruno.
That’s another big step for our company in the mobile arena," he said. "More and more, customers are all online and now they’re going to mobile as well – searching for travel and booking travel with their mobile devices."
