Travel: Mobile app use far exceeds mobile web
According to Nielsen, almost 95% of all Android and iOS mobile traffic to travel-related content comes from mobile apps.
Just 5% of traffic comes via the mobile web.
The app/mobile web split is very different across travel categories:
(%App vs. %Web)
Airlines – 61% vs. 39%
Cruise Lines – 0% vs. 100%
Ground Transportation – 14% vs. 86%
Hotel – 31% vs. 69%
Maps/Navigation – 98% vs. 2%
Multi-category travel – 79% vs. 21%
Travel Destinations/Theme Parks – 54% vs. 46%
“When looking at the top U.S. travel apps and sites, consumers seemingly prefer apps for guidance and the mobile web for trip planning,” notes Nielsen in a recent press release. “Seven out of the top 10 Travel apps during June 2012 featured a map/navigation function, while the top mobile websites mostly included airlines and travel aggregators, such as TripAdvisor and Priceline.com.”
The figures analyzed were for June, 2012, a month during which Google Maps was the top travel app and website and accounted for 78% of all mobile time spent on travel-related content. Google clocked up a total of 78 million app users during June, 2012, and another 17 million on the mobile web.