T H E U K T R AV E L R E P O R T

Audience , Mob i le & Metasearch Trends Shap ing the Indust ry

2018 Ed i t ion

INTRODUCTION

The travel industry has seen radical changes in the

past decade. The rise of Metasearch sites and Rental

players, like Airbnb, have shaken up the landscape.

But it isn’t just the players that have shifted. Different

segments of consumers have also moved away from

their supposed “stereotypes”.

In this report, we will dive into these key trends

shaping the industry today.

We detail how travel companies must start with

digital behaviours when it comes to audience

segmentation, and how they must re-think the role

of mobile and Metasearch sites in the consumer’s

booking journey.

PART ONE

TRAVEL STEREOTYPES NO MOREHow consumers are breaking stereotypes

PART TWO

MOBILE CONTINUES TO EXPANDHow mobile and desktop are being used today

PART THREE

METASEARCH GROWS AS A CHECKPOINTHow booking journeys are changing

WHAT’S INSIDEFor twenty years, Hitwise has been a leading

online consumer intelligence business.

With our unique digital insights and powerful

modelling tools, our clients are able to

segment, reach and engage with their

prospective consumers.

Sample size3M online panelists

1.5M mobile devices

Data depth160M keywords

18K+ audience attributes

Data frequencyHourly insights

to yearly trends

PART ONE

TRAVEL STEREOTYPESNO MOREWith the vast array of holiday options and experiences

available at their fingertips, travellers are experimenting

more than ever before.

But when it comes to understanding their audience and how

their experiences have shifted, travel companies often run

the risk of stereotyping.

In this chapter, we track shifts in online behaviours to

debunk some of these misconceptions.

THE UK TRAVEL REPORT | 5

ARE CRUISES ONLY FOR RETIREES? Cruises traditionally have been the travel domain of

the older, retired traveller. People aged 55+ accounted

for the largest age group, at 39%, out of all visitors

looking at Cruise sites.

However, when we compare this year-on-year, the

fastest rising age group were, in fact, 18-24 yo. The

share of visitors from that segment have shot up 49%,

compared to the previous year.

VISITORS TO CRUISE SITESBy Age Group

August 2017 August 2018

18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+

7%

18%17%16% 16%

19%

10%

23%+49%in audience

share

+9%in audience

share

36%39%

THE UK TRAVEL REPORT | 6

IS ADVENTURE ONLY FOR MILLENNIALS? Equally, experiences that we tend to associate with

younger audiences have also shifted.

Compared to Cruise sites, the proportion of people

aged 18-24 searching for “adventure travel” or

“adventure holidays” (and variations of these terms)

were higher (at 14%, compared to 10%).

But when we look at the trend year-on-year, the

fastest rising group were 55+ yo, which had grown

33% compared to the previous year.

SEARCHES FOR ADVENTURE TRAVEL / HOLIDAYSShare By Age Group

August 2017 August 2018

18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+

18% 18%16% 16%14%

20% 20%22%

+27%in audience

share

+33%in audience

share

24%

31%

THE UK TRAVEL REPORT | 7

SEARCHES FOR “SOLO TRAVEL”YoY Trend

2016 2017 2018

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun AugJul

+112% in searches over the past two years

Key Takeaway:

These are simple examples showing why travel companies

need to track trends, as oppose to stereotypes.

By monitoring movements in search, browsing and booking

behaviours, companies are able to stay ahead of the curve, by

tailoring their offer and messaging to fast-moving trends.

Additionally, holidays aren’t always spent with loved

ones and friends. Solo travellers have picked up

tremendously each year.

Over the past two years, searches for “solo travel”

have grown 112%. As we reached the end of the

summer, the urge for some peace and quiet also

peaked, with “solo travel” searches up 30% in August

year-on-year.

ARE WE OPTING FOR MORE PEACE & QUIET?

0.0009%

0.0007%

0.0005%

0.0003%

0.0001%

+30%in searches August YoY

PART TWO

MOBILE CONTINUES TO EXPANDCustomer experience has taken over acquisition as the

biggest business priority in travel, according to a 2017

Econsultancy survey. To do so, mobile is critical.

With mobile bookings estimated to grow 12%-14% a year

over the next four years, we look at the current situation.

In this chapter, we track how mobile adoption has shifted

for key categories, and highlight where desktop is still the

preferred device for travellers.

THE UK TRAVEL REPORT | 9

MOBILE LARGELY VARIED ACROSS TRAVEL VERTICALS

90% of travel brands say that a mobile strategy is

“critical” to their future success.

According to Hitwise data, mobile adoption is still

largely varied across Travel categories.

Operators and Hotels have over 60% split in favour of

Mobile, compared to a 42% device share for mobile

for Airlines.Mobile Rate Desktop Rate

Operator Hotel Metasearch OTA Rental Airline

64%

36%

60%

40%

57%

43%

53%

47%

50%

50%

42%

58%

DEVICE SPLIT BY TRAVEL VERTICALSAugust 2018

THE UK TRAVEL REPORT | 10

Since the winter peak (January) to summer peak (August), mobile rates were mostly stable. The only group to gain ground

over this period were Metasearch engines, such as Skyscanner and Google Flights, which saw a 10% leap. Online aggregators

saw a smaller uplift of 3%.

MOBILE RATE BY TRAVEL VERTICALS January to August 2018

January 18 August 18

METASEARCH SAW A 10% UPLIFT IN MOBILE

Operator Hotel Metasearch OTA Rental Airline

63% 64%

60%

52% 52% 51%

42% 42%

60%57%

53%

50%

+3%in mobile rate

+10%in mobile rate

THE UK TRAVEL REPORT | 11

TRIPADVISOR BEHIND METASEARCH’S MOBILE RISE

Between the winter and summer peak, Metasearch sites received 17% traffic from search on mobile devices. In particular,

TripAdvisor saw a significant leap of 33% in mobile search share. This rise was to the detriment of Travel Operators, which saw a

19% decline in mobile search share.

TripAdvisor grew

33%Metasearch grew

17%Operator dropped

19%

MOBILE SEARCH SHARE BY TRAVEL VERTICALSJanuary to August 2018

OperatorTripAdvisor

January 2018

August 2018

Metasearch OTA Other

22%

29%

13%

12%

23%

19%

14%

14%

28%

27%

THE UK TRAVEL REPORT | 12

TRAVEL BOOKINGS STILL PREFERRED ON DESKTOPNot all online actions have shifted toward mobile.

Looking at top OTA sites, such as Booking.com, Expedia and

Hotels.co.uk, mobile adoption has slightly grown to over 50%

of all visits from summer to winter peak.

When it comes to the final booking, just 18% convert on

mobile; a trend that hasn’t shifted since the start of the year.

MOBILE RATE ON TOP OTA’S – VISIT TO BOOKINGJanuary to August 2018

Key Takeaway:

Whilst desktop is still preferred for bookings, mobile is crucial.

More consumers are starting their search journeys on mobile,

particularly on Metasearch sites.

Other verticals need to catch up by providing a seamless

experience, reducing the lag between research to booking.

Jan 18 Jan 18Aug 18 Aug 18

50.5%

18.1%

52.1%

18.0%

Half of visits to OTA sites

are on mobile

Less than one-fifth convert

on mobile

Mobile Rate on Final Booking

Mobile Rate on Overall Site

PART THREE

METASEARCH GROWS AS A CHECKPOINT Metasearch sites are playing a greater role for travellers,

providing a perceived benefit of unbiasedly aggregating

reviews, prices and deals in one spot.

As we saw in the previous chapter, sites like Google Flights,

Kayak, Trivago and TripAdvisor are taking a larger share of

mobile search traffic.

In this chapter, we look at how travellers are interacting

differently with these middlemen, and how this is impacting

other travel verticals.

THE UK TRAVEL REPORT | 14

As well as having a greater and increasing share from mobile search, customers are also visiting Metasearch sites more often.

From January to August, the average number of visits over the month rose by 12% (from 9 times to over 10 times), whereas

other verticals remained more or less the same.

AVERAGE VISITS PER USER BY TRAVEL VERTICALS January vs August 2018

January 18 August 18

HIGHER RETURN RATE ON METASEARCH

Metasearch

9.0

10.2

Operator

8.3 8.4

Rental

7.8 7.9

OTA

7.0 7.1

Airline

5.8 5.8

Direct Hotels

5.5 5.7

+12%average visits

THE UK TRAVEL REPORT | 15

CLICKSTREAM BY TRAVEL VERTICAL

Metasearch

12.1% 14.4%

4.6% 8.8%

4.2% 7.5%

1.2% 7.1%

OTA

Operator

Airline

Hotel

Metasearch

Downstream share from

Upstream share to

Looking at downstream traffic from Metasearch sites, a significant portion lead to OTAs, at 12.1%. However, a greater share of

traffic from OTAs is sent back to Metasearch sites, at 14.4%. This was also the case for other verticals - Operators, Airlines and

Hotels.

These behaviours show that Metasearch is increasingly becoming a checkpoint, even after a consumer visits a direct booking site.

Consumers could be re-checking their selected options, looking for alternative paths, or potentially not receiving the necessary

information on OTAs or Operators, thus re-starting their search journeys.

MORE BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN METASEARCH

THE UK TRAVEL REPORT | 16

AVERAGE TIME PER VISIT BY TRAVEL CHANNELS Over the month of August 2018

Whilst consumers visit Metasearch sites more often than other travel categories, the amount of time they spend on these

sites is considerably less than its peers. Consumers spend an average of 8 minutes 11 seconds on Rental sites per visit,

compared to 5 minutes for Metasearch sites.

BUT LESS TIME SPENT PER VISIT

Key Takeaway:

Understand why consumers leave your site, by identifying searches they perform when returning to Metasearch sites.

These insights will help address any gaps you may have in your offer or user journey.

Rental

8m 11s 8m 7m 23s 6m 29s5m 35s

5m

Operator AirlineOTA

Hotel Meta Search

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Consumers are shifting - segment based on

audience behaviour, not stereotypes.

Mobile is growing - but not across all online

touchpoints. Consumers are still booking on

desktop.

Optimise search on mobile - particularly for

research and consideration phases.

Metasearch is becoming a checkpoint - consumers

are visiting more often between other travel

channels, but for less time.

Track where consumers go after you - understand

why through search to win back overlapping or lost

audiences.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Sources by Page

Page 5: Hitwise, Audience = Visitors to Cruise Sites, Period = 5 weeks ending 2018-09-01 YoY.

Page 6: Hitwise, Audience = Searchers of “adventure” with “travel”, “tour”, “holiday” and “trip” (and variations of these terms). Period = 5 weeks ending 2018-09-01 YoY.

Page 7: Hitwise, Total volume of search variations for “solo travel”, weekly trend.

Page 9-10: Hitwise, Verticals are categorised from the top 200 sites to Hitwise’s Travel industry. Mobile vs. Desktop split for in-browser sessions only, not in-app sessions. Period = 5 weeks ending 2018-09-01 vs. 5 weeks ending 2018-02-03.

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Page 11: Hitwise, Share of search clicks to selected Travel Verticals on Mobile devices, Period = 5 weeks ending 2018-09-01 vs. 5 weeks ending 2018-02-03.

Page 12: Hitwise, Mobile Rate to Top OTAs (Booking.com, Expedia and Hotels.co.uk) for site overall and on booking confirmation page. Period = 5 weeks ending 2018-09-01 vs. 5 weeks ending 2018-02-03.

hitwise.co.uk