With the growing adoption of smartphones in India, Google India has released the findings of a study titled "Multi-screen traveler" conducted by IPSOS. The study was conducted to understand the behaviour of smartphone users in India and to focus on a target group which uses multiple devices to get online for their travel-related needs.
According to the study, it was revealed that 76% smartphone users use both computer and mobile across the travel stages (dreaming, researching, booking, experience, sharing), while 60% users move from one device to another when they switch from researching to booking. Out of the more than 1,500 leisure travellers surveyed, it was found that 87% users use mobile phones to research about their trips. 60% users said that the information they find while researching on their mobile phones influences their booking decision.
Vikas Agnihotri, Director - Travel & BFSI, Google India, said, "The smartphone user base is set to explode in India to touch 70 million by the end of this year. Over one-third of travel-related search queries on Google India are now coming from mobile and tablet devices, with queries from smartphones growing at 397% YoY. This study establishes that today’s hyper-connected, hyper-informed smartphone user is consuming online content across devices. We believe that the findings from this study will help them to devise strategies to engage the users across multiple online screens/devices."
The Google India traveller report also looked at the booking behaviour of the smartphone and tablet users. It highlighted that the Indian travel planner goes through a variety of resources around destination research, like browsing through pictures on social networks (74%), reading trip information on travel sites & apps (56%) and watching videos about destinations (52%).
