China’s smartphones usage and travel apps on a growth path — Photo by EyeforTravel Ltd

Chinese consumers are far more smartphone and app-focused as they research and book their travel than their Western counterparts, with 60.3% using their smartphone as their main research device, versus 30.4% who mainly use a desktop or laptop finds the research.

As Chinese travellers move on to the booking phase, smartphones become less dominant than in the research phase but still leads desktop. When making a flight booking, 41.3% choose to use their smartphone, compared to 35.2% who prefer to use a desktop/laptop. Only 8.3% book using a tablet and 6.2% buy their flight face-to-face with a travel agent. Similarly, with accommodation 41.8% of respondents prefer a smartphone, 34.2% a desktop/laptop, and 8.7% of consumers use a tablet.

Within this, apps are comprehensively beating browsers for Chinese users' time and spending. Across all flight bookings in EyeforTravel's survey 34.4% used a smartphone app versus 6.9% who made their booking using a web browser. Once again, there is a similar pattern for accommodation bookings, underlining the unique dynamic of the market.

Furthermore, smartphone usage for travel planning is set to grow as younger generations are more smartphone-focused. Among 18-35 year olds 65.5% primarily use their smartphone to research travel but just 22.9% use desktops or laptops. For those aged above 56 47.7% prefer a smartphone and a substantially higher 43.7% go through a desktop/laptop.

Not only this but younger generations put more emphasis on travel, spending proportionally more of their annual income on tourism. They are also benefitting from improving education standards and economic conditions in China, further increasing their discretionary spending power. These conditions will make the smartphone the dominant device of the future when trying to reach the Chinese travel consumer.

Become a member of EyeforTravel On Demand now and access the full report, which includes:

  • A survey of more than 2,000 Chinese travel consumers.
  • Economic analysis and projections for the Chinese economy.
  • Summaries and outlooks for Chinese domestic and outbound travel.
  • Consumer booking, research, and trip spending behaviours.
  • Lead times for flight, accommodation and tours and activities.
  • Geographic and demographic breakdowns.
  • More than 50 figures, tables and charts profiling the Chinese travel consumer.

About Reuters Events

Reuters Events is a community where the world’s top online travel brands – from hotels to airlines, online travel agents, cruise, car hire firms and more – come to meet to drive forward growth and innovation in the industry.

We know that working in the turbulent online travel industry is as exciting as it is challenging. In this constantly evolving market place, we appreciate that keeping up with the pace of change can be tough, not to mention time consuming. You need the right information, contacts and strategic insight to succeed.

Established in 1997, by Tim Gunstone, we offer a diverse product portfolio including industry analysis, insights, research, webinars, reports and conferences to suit the needs of our clients.

Our clients read as a who’s who of online travel. From major hotel brands to new startups, we help our 80,000 strong customer base make better decisions, build better brands, close the most lucrative deals and ultimately sell more of their product. After all, increasing travel brand profit margins in the cutthroat travel industry is the name of the game!

No other online travel intelligence provider has been charting the growth of online travel as long as we have. We were here at the inception of online travel and we know the industry inside out. What’s more, we’re a small, friendly team. Forget impersonal hierarchies, we like to get to know our customers and work towards their exact needs.

Meredith Pistulka

View source