In many ways, the trav­el indus­try has always been one of the most inno­v­a­tive ver­ti­cals with­in dig­i­tal. With its long pur­chase cycles, com­plex, emo­tive mar­ket­ing, and a high­ly com­pet­i­tive brand land­scape, trends with trav­el have long been a pre­cur­sor for wider trends with­in dig­i­tal. Recent­ly, the hottest top­ic for trav­el dig­i­tal mar­keters has been mobile. What’s the low down on mobile usage and con­ver­sions in the trav­el indus­try?

A new study from adver­tis­ing tech­nol­o­gy provider Criteo, has revealed a stark rise in the num­ber of trav­el book­ings being com­plet­ed via mobile devices. In an analy­sis of more than 300 mil­lion book­ings, respon­si­ble for more than $150 bil­lion in book­ing val­ue over the first half of 2014, Criteo found book­ings from mobile devices grew by 20 per­cent.

Here’s a run­down of the key find­ings from Criteo’s Trav­el Flash Report:

1. Mobile book­ings up 20 per­cent in the first two quar­ters of 2014, far out­grow­ing the rate of desk­top book­ings.
2. Aver­age book­ing val­ues on mobile now equal to, or high­er than, desk­top.
3. Aver­age book­ing val­ues for air trav­el are now 21 per­cent high­er on mobile devices than on desk­tops, and 13 per­cent high­er for car rentals.
4. The increase in book­ings and aver­age book­ing val­ues com­bines have result­ed in much high­er rev­enue for mobile.
5. Sea­son­al trends and region­al vari­a­tions influ­ence oppor­tu­ni­ty. The World Cup drove increas­es in Latin Amer­i­ca whilst US trav­el grew 20 per­cent in first six months of 2014.
6. Sea­sons only tell part of the sto­ry… OTAs (online trav­el agen­cies) got most of the first half growth in book­ings.

Criteo also sin­gled out three key themes they drew from their find­ings.

1. Mobile Is Driving Growth And Bookings

An over­all 20 per­cent increase in book­ings from mobile devices far eclipsed the growth in desk­top book­ings at just 2 per­cent. The data implies that for brands, a mobile strat­e­gy is now cru­cial.

Criteo’s analy­sis revealed that online book­ing are grow­ing, and mobile is both dri­ving that growth and increas­ing its share.

2. Mobile Advertising Is More Valuable For Brands

The growth and vol­ume of book­ings via mobile have increased, but cru­cial­ly aver­age book­ing val­ues have increased in line with this growth, in some cas­es even exceed­ing that of desk­top book­ings. With the excep­tion of pack­age hol­i­days, aver­age book­ing val­ues have held con­sis­tent­ly on mobile devices for a num­ber of trav­el prod­ucts. It’s a strong sig­nal that the chan­nel is becom­ing more valu­able for adver­tis­ers.

3. Mobile Bookings Are Highly Seasonal

Dif­fer­ent regions exhib­it unique sea­son­al vari­a­tions in the num­ber of desk­top book­ings. In the U.S., there’s a peak in the num­ber of trav­el book­ings toward the end of March, like­ly due to a com­bi­na­tion of both spring break and ear­ly book­ings for the sum­mer sea­son.

In Europe, trav­el book­ings rise for the sum­mer sea­son. Book­ings start to rise in Feb­ru­ary, con­tin­u­ing through to the sum­mer months.

The strong growth in the peri­od in Latin Amer­i­ca was due to the FIFA 2014 World Cup.

The find­ings indi­cate that mar­keters need mar­ket­ing strate­gies that respond to vari­a­tions in book­ing pat­terns and val­ues. Sea­son­al vari­a­tions and events can be a huge oppor­tu­ni­ty, but only if you’re able to accu­rate­ly tar­get con­sumers accord­ing to their online behav­ior.

How Can Travel Brands Make The Most Of Mobile?

Brands can now be fair­ly con­fi­dent in the fact that they can reach con­sumers on mobile devices. Top of the agen­da for trav­el brands should be opti­miz­ing their entire mobile expe­ri­ence, and putting the same invest­ment in opti­miz­ing mobile con­ver­sions as that of desk­top.

Chan­nel spend between desk­top and mobile adver­tis­ing should be inte­grat­ed, with deci­sion­al process­es as agile as pos­si­ble to make use of real time and sea­son­al oppor­tu­ni­ties.

Mobile adver­tis­ing now pro­vides an increased con­ver­sion prospect for high-val­ue trav­el prod­ucts, from pack­age hol­i­days to last-minute flights.

Increas­ing smart­phone and tablet con­ver­sions present a mas­sive oppor­tu­ni­ty for trav­el brands. It pro­vides a whole new way to reach con­sumers, and adds val­ue to the mar­ket rather than chip­ping away at the desk­top book­ing share. Brands need to devel­op “mobile-first” mar­ket­ing strate­gies, that also take into account sea­son­al and region­al vari­a­tions. Win­ning in the space will require brands to be agile, and to uni­fy their con­tent and user expe­ri­ences across devices, chan­nels, and plat­forms.