British Ebookers Turning to Mobile as Part of Holiday Booking Process

Key Message Points:

• 17% of British consumers with a mobile device have researched a holiday on a mobile app or website in the last 12 months
• 36% of Brits online have used two or more channels when researching a holiday in the last year
• Positive customer experience cited as important for 42% of ebookers

London, 13 December 2011 – British online consumers are turning to mobile devices as part of the holiday booking process according to research released today by Tealeaf^®. Almost a fifth of ebookers with a mobile device (17%) have researched a holiday on a mobile app or website in the last 12 months. While only 3% have used a mobile device to complete a travel purchase, mobile is now a key component of a multi-device approach, with 63% of ebookers that have researched a holiday on a mobile device in the past 12 months saying they then booked online using a desktop or laptop computer.

The multi-channel approach to booking a holiday
For the second year running, the Tealeaf report, entitled "The ebooker: understanding how travel customers use the web", drills into insights gained from over 2,000 British adults online. It finds that the internet continues to play a fundamental role in booking travel, with 38% of ebookers still conducting their holiday research wholly online and almost a third (29%) only using the internet to book a holiday.

The growing ubiquity of mobile devices has had a considerable impact on ebooker behaviour when researching and booking a holiday with over a third (36%) of British adults having used two or more channels when researching a holiday in the past 12 months.

The customer is still king
A positive customer experience is still a priority for 42% of ebookers when booking a holiday, second only to price (66%). And with ebookers visiting an average of 3.5* sites before making a purchase, competition remains high, especially as just 11% of British adults book their holiday with the same provider each time.

However, customers have high expectations for the emerging new technologies they use to research and book a holiday, with 40% of British adults stating they expect their experience booking or researching a holiday on a mobile device to be the same or better than on a desktop computer in the next 12 months. In addition, 46% of adults who own a mobile device state that a bad mobile experience would negatively impact their feelings towards the travel brand. And 38% agreed they would be likely to book their next holiday with a different provider following a poor mobile experience.

"There is clear appetite amongst ebookers to use mobile devices as part of the holiday booking process," says Geoff Galat, CMO, Tealeaf. "This presents a massive opportunity for travel companies, but ensuring ebookers receive the best possible customer experience, regardless of the channel they use, is a challenge many still need to overcome. Full visibility into the online customer journey, across every device used, can help deliver a flawless online customer experience that will drive loyalty, improve conversion rates and ultimately increase revenues."

The full Tealeaf report can be downloaded here.

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Methodology
The Tealeaf/YouGov survey has been conducted using an online interview administered by members of the YouGov Plc GB panel to 185,000+ individuals who have agreed to take part in surveys. An email was sent to individuals selected at random from the base sample according to the sample definition, inviting them to take part and providing a link to the survey.

All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2060 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken from 23rd - 26th September 2011. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).

* Calculated by EML Wildfire

About Tealeaf
Tealeaf provides online customer experience management solutions and is the unchallenged leader in customer behaviour analysis. Tealeaf's CEM solutions include both a customer behaviour analysis suite and customer service optimization suite. For organizations that are making customer experience a top priority, these solutions provide unprecedented enterprise-wide visibility into every visitor's unique online interactions for ongoing analysis and web site optimization. Online executive stakeholders from ebusiness and IT to customer service and compliance are leveraging Tealeaf to build a customer experience management competency across the organization. Founded in 1999, Tealeaf is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and is privately held.

© Copyright 2011 TeaLeaf Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Tealeaf, the Tealeaf word and design mark, VIA and Visibility.Insight.Answers are registered trademarks of TeaLeaf Technology, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Tealeaf CX, Tealeaf cxView, Tealeaf cxImpact, Tealeaf cxReveal, Tealeaf cxVerify, Tealeaf cxConnect and Tealeaf's CX Customer Behavior Analysis Suite are all trademarks of TeaLeaf Technology, Inc. All other trademarks or service marks are the property of their respective holders and are hereby acknowledged.

Press Contacts, Europe:
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Press Contact:
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