TripAdvisor Reveals 2014 Travel Roundup & Trends Forecast For 2015

Economic Conditions

Despite relatively low optimism in the economy (only 11 percent of global respondents and 14 percent of Indian respondents reported spending more on travel because they felt more confident about the economy), travellers were not willing to give up their holidays, with many opting to hunt for bargains and make sacrifices in other areas of their lives in order to protect their travel spend.

Currency fluctuation was the top most reason to affect travel plans of Indian travellers, with 63 percent indicating that it would impact their holiday plans, compared to 44 percent globally. Despite this, those affected still planned to travel. Of those travellers who said currency fluctuation would impact them, 53 percent global respondents and 44 percent Indian respondents researched more to find the best price.

Connected on the Go

91 percent of global travellers said they were attached to their mobiles; India and China led the pack with 98 percent of travellers from each country saying they used their smartphones on holiday. Two in five (41 percent) Indians used their smartphone to find things to do, and over one-third (35 percent) to search for hotels. 

The global travellers’ pervasive use of mobile phones is reflected in TripAdvisor’s mobile app downloads. So far, 150 million people have downloaded the TripAdvisor family of mobile apps, growing at triple digit rate.

TripAdvisor’s mobile audience globally grew to nearly 50 percent of total traffic (Q3 2014) with Asia witnessing triple digit year-on-year growth in mobile audience across a number of markets.

TripAdvisor introduced ‘Instant Booking’ in the U.S., a feature available through the TripAdvisor mobile app and website that allows travellers to quickly and easily make a hotel reservation through the hotel or online travel agency (OTA) partner whilst conveniently remaining on the TripAdvisor app.  Instant booking is a huge focus for our company and though it is currently available to U.S. travellers across all platforms (mobile, tablet and desktop), we expect to roll out to more markets in 2015.

On the business side, three in four (76 percent) global hoteliers and eight in ten (81 percent) Indian hoteliers already had a mobile offering for travellers. Out of those who did not offer mobile services, 50 percent of global hoteliers and 64 percent of Indian hoteliers planned to introduce it in 2014. Almost half (47 percent) of Indian hoteliers allowed guests to book rooms via their website on a mobile device, and 32 percent had a mobile friendly website.
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