Technology drives travel spontaneity

Travellers from the UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia indicate technology has made their travel planning and booking considerably more spontaneous in 2014 – with residents in Saudi Arabia and Egypt driving the impulse-travel trend.

54% of online bookers from the fourth annual YouGov Travel Oracle say technology has made their travel planning and booking ‘a lot’ more spontaneous versus 37% a year ago. The YouGov Travel Oracle is an annual syndicated online study of consumer habits and attitudes towards travel and tourism – which surveyed 22,686 Travellers in MENA between August and September 2014.

Tablet and smartphone usage is increasingly prevalent in planning travel this year. Travellers in the UAE and Egypt are using smartphones more often to engage with travel-related content pre-trip in 2014. Tablet usage is up slightly in the UAE and significantly in Egypt, with particularly high usage of tablet apps and reading more involved information sources such as online travel guides.

Hotel bookings through travel portals such as Booking.com or Expedia are up year-on-year in all three Middle Eastern power markets (44% in 2014 vs. 29% in 2013). There is also a sharp rise in Egypt from only 16% of respondents booking hotels through travel portals in 2013, to a significant 40% in 2014.

Booking hotels via smart phone/tablet apps has also risen in all three markets since last year, with a six percent increase. When it comes to flying, insight shows mobile technology is evolving traveller touch points. Usage of electronic boarding passes has increased the most since last year, up 13% (24% vs. 37% in 2014). The popularity of e-gates (26%) and in-flight internet (31%) is also up from 2013, both rising from 21%.