Buying travel services - Do consumers prefer physical or online retailers?
Right from when we start planning a trip to unpacking suitcases at the end of it, choosing the right travel services is crucial in ensuring a smooth run. In this piece, we’re exploring where travelers across 17 international markets prefer purchasing travel services from - a physical retailer or an online one.
Data from a recent YouGov Surveys: Serviced poll reveals that less than one in five respondents across markets (18%) prefer buying travel services from a physical retailer - recording a five percentage-point lead over bottom placed video games.
A clear preference for online travel booking, YouGov data shows. More than three in five respondents across markets (62%) prefer buying travel services from online retailers.
Travel services buying preferences by market:
Buying travel services from physical retailers
Mexicans lead (26%) across markets in their preference for physical retailers when it comes to purchasing travel services. A quarter of Spanish (25%) and Australians (25%) follow Mexicans. Nearly a quarter of Indians (23%) prefer booking via a physical retailer as well, the most likely among the Asian consumers surveyed to do so.
Equal proportions of Americans and Brits (12% each) prefer buying travel services offline.
Right at the bottom of the list of consumers who prefer physical travel services retailers - we have consumers from the Nordic markets surveyed (8% of Swedes and 8% of Danes).
Buying travel services from online retailers
Three fourths of all Hong Kongers surveyed (75%) say they prefer buying travel services from online retailers, the most likely across all markets surveyed to say so. Swedes (74%), Danes (73%), Indonesians (72%) and Singaporeans (72%) follow.
A majority of travelers in the UAE (71%) prefer online travel services retailers too.
In the US, more than half of all Americans (54%) opt for online retailers when shopping for travel services - so do a larger proportion of Brits (67%).
More than a quarter of all Americans (26%) actually say they do not buy travel services, the largest proportion of those across markets to say so, followed by Poles (19%) and French (18%) at a distance.
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Methodology: YouGov Surveys: Serviced provide quick survey results from
nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18+ years in 17 markets with sample sizes varying between 505 and 2001 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in July 2024. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced.
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