Hotel & Tourism SMARTreport #35

INNOVATIONS & TECHNOLOGIES
APAC CONTINUES TO LEAD
THE PUSH TOWARDS
A COMPLETELY MOBILE
TRAVELLER LIFE CYCLE
It’s no surprise that global travel companies
continue to focus on mobile growth in
Asia Pacific (APAC). With high Internet
and mobile penetration, travelers in
APAC expect faster and easier access to
travel, without being bogged down by
traditional payment methods. Unique
market dynamics force travel companies
to adopt local strategies that don’t work
anywhere else. Let’s take a look at why
APAC continues to lead the push towards
a completely mobile traveller life cycle.
While smartphone bookings soar globally,
some countries continue to blaze their
way as leaders in mobile travel. Asia
Pacific (APAC) leads all markets in
mobile booking adoption, according
to Phocuswright’s Global Online Travel
Overview Fourth Edition. The report
provides and compares total and online
travel gross bookings for six regions: the
U.S./Canada, Europe, Eastern Europe,
APAC, the Middle East and Latin America.
APAC mobile bookings are projected to
grow from 24% of the online travel market
in 2015 to 37% in 2017. That compares to
both the U.S. and Europe, where mobile
penetration is expected to be just 24% by
the end of this year.
Electronic wallets from companies including
Alipay in China and Paytm in India, mobile
payment solutions and call-to-book/partial
online payment options have opened the
floodgates for mobile transactions.
“In China, mobile-only discounts from
intermediaries are fueling smartphone
bookings among the country’s massive
subscriber base,” says Phocuswright’s
senior vice president, research, Lorraine
Sileo. “In India, online travel agencies are
aggressively promoting app downloads as
mobile has emerged as a new battleground
for intermediaries.”
ASIA PACIFIC TRAVEL
MARKETS HAVE THE
WORLD’S HIGHEST MOBILE
TRAVEL PENETRATION
With a rising number of Asia Pacific
(APAC) travellers having access to the
Internet and digital banking via their
smartphones, mobile will be the fastestgrowing
online platform
in the region. Combined
mobile gross bookings of
China, India and Japan will
reach US$105.9 billion by
2020, up 325% over 2015.
Phocuswright’s Asia Pacific
Online Travel Overview
Ninth Edition provides
market and channel sizing,
and aggregates gross travel
bookings of APAC-based
travel suppliers, covering 13
APAC countries’ leisure and
unmanaged business travel.
“It is no surprise that China, where Weixin
(WeChat), the world’s most advanced
mobile messaging and commerce platform
was conceived, also leads the mobile travel
revolution globally,” said Phocuswright’s
research analyst, Asia Pacific, Chetan
Kapoor. “Mobile share of the Chinese
online travel market will almost double
between 2015 and 2020 to 77%,
significantly dwarfing even the Western
mobile markets.”
In APAC, online travel agencies are at
the forefront of mobile innovation,
development, marketing and distribution
relative to the suppliers. In India, OTAs
accounted for 88% of the mobile travel
market in 2015, while their counterparts
in China delivered 60% of the market’s