This Is How Much Time Travelers Spend Researching Before Booking a Trip

Expedia Group’s Path to Purchase study has revealed traveler consumption habits as they plan and seek inspiration for their trip.

Travelers spend an average of 303 minutes, or more than 5 hours per day on travel content during the 45 days before booking. Expedia Group's and Luth Research's research sheds light on travelers' preferences and behaviors during the online shopping process. It also illustrates how and where they plan and book their travel. This includes the number of website visits, page views, destination considerations and trip resources.

Travel content is becoming increasingly important in the booking process

The research showed that in the 45-day period before booking an online trip, travelers are consuming a significant amount of content to help them make a decision. In the seven countries that were surveyed, travelers spent an average of 45 days before booking a trip online:

In the 45 days before booking a vacation, travelers viewed 141 pages, while in the U.S. they viewed 277 pages. These page views were spread throughout the path of purchase.

The research increases rapidly in the days leading up to the booking. It reaches 25 pages on the day of the purchase.

The top 45 resources used by travelers in the 45-day period leading up to the purchase of a product:

Most travelers use OTAs (80%), search engines (61%), Facebook (58%), airline websites (54%) and meta-travel websites (51%).

Four out of five travelers visited an OTA before booking a trip, indicating they were likely there for research, inspiration or planning, even if they booked on another site.

Destination inspiration is a must for travelers

The majority of travelers are still undecided about their travel destination before they begin the planning process.

Nearly 3/5 of travelers who responded to the survey said they had no specific destination in mind or that they considered several destinations before deciding to go on a vacation (59%).

More than 80% travelers from Mexico, and 62% travelers from the U.K., were undecided about their destination. This indicates that these travelers are more open to inspiration.
A significant number of respondents also stated that what they consume on social media or in advertising influences them.

77% of those who use social media to make a purchase do so for inspiration.

Nearly one fifth (19%) of travelers say that advertising has influenced their decision to plan a vacation. The highest number of travelers was from Mexico, at 40%.

Advertising is also more likely influence vacation rental guests (26%), and hotel guests (22%).

Cheryl Miller is the SVP and CMO of Expedia for Business. She said, "The traveler path to purchase is often complex, and full of twists and turns. This research highlights just how much thought and consideration travelers put into planning a trip in the weeks leading up to booking, as they seek to niche and refine their choices. This means there are many opportunities to connect with travelers before they make their decisions, underlining the importance of partnership, given that it's essential to show up across multiple touchpoints and beyond your owned brand channels, as frequently as possible along this path. By providing actionable insights to help reach, inspire, and engage travelers during their path to purchase, we're pleased to provide B2B travel partners with the tools required to convert their guests and customers."

Source: hotelnewsresource.com