Monday 16 April 2018

Germany to continue to lag other markets for mobile travel bookings

The German online travel market will continue to be less mobile-focused than other major travel markets for the foreseeable future says a new report

Although digital travel bookings made through mobile are rising, a number of factors will mean Germans continue to rely on their desktops and laptops to look and book their trips says EyeforTravel’s new German Travel Consumer 2018 Report.


The research expects continuing rises in smartphone usage during the booking journey as younger generations are more likely to use the device. However, even by 2020 the report expects roughly two thirds of digital bookings to still be conducted on desktops and laptops in the German market. A free excerpt from the report covering booking trends can be downloaded by clicking this link here now.

Low rates of mobile usage in the market relative to other European travel markets, such as France, Scandinavia and the UK, is a result of several factors including a conservative attitude to technology and lower ability to access mobile data. Broadband infrastructure for mobile devices is relatively weak in Germany and data plans are often expensive, leading to Germany ranking near the bottom of OECD countries for data downloaded per subscription. According to OECD data, Finland, which ranks at the top of the countries in the organization for mobile data, saw nearly 11GB of data usage per mobile subscription in 2016. By contrast, only seven of the OECD’s 32 countries came below Germany, where the average mobile subscription uses just 1.21GB of mobile data. Germans are also highly concerned with privacy, which can be seen in relatively low rates of social media usage and more focus  

This leaves mobile devices trailing desktops and laptops for users time as they plan and book their trip, especially when it comes to older generations. In a survey conducted for the report, just 0.6% of over 55s report buying their flight through a smartphone. In comparison, 29% reported making their flight booking via a face-to-face sale.

Desktops and laptops are also sticky in terms of consumer behaviour, with very low numbers of consumers switching over to mobile devices after using a desktop as their primary research device, and most German consumers heading the other way to make their booking. just 2.4% of consumers who report mainly using a desktop/laptop to research report going over to a tablet and 1.8% to a smartphone

Therefore, as well as Germany lagging behind other major markets for smartphone device usage in the travel journey, it will also shift relatively slowly due to consumer attitudes, demographic trends, infrastructure issues, and an established market of traditional travel agencies.

You can download an excerpt from the report by clicking here. The excerpt includes data on digital habits, device ownership, cross-device movements, research behaviors, lead times, search terms, key research and booking points, social media engagement, and device usage rates both inside and outside the travel journey.

To access the full report and all of EyeforTravel’s research become a member of EyeforTravel On Demand now
  • Detailed analysis of Germany’s economy and its ramifications for consumer travel spending.
  • More than 80 charts, figures and tables of data detailing the state of the German travel consumer.
  • Outbound and domestic travel market overviews and outlooks.
  • A breakdown of the German journey to booking, including lead times, key apps and most popular websites.
  • Age and location breakdowns for key online behaviors, destination preferences and spending.
  • Trends in German device ownership and usage.
  • An overview of the state of Germany’s travel industry.
  • Forecasts and outlooks for technologies, destinations, and market growth.
  • Data taken from more than 80 different sources.