Traveling without mobiles...impossible?
If Isabella Bird was able to cross 19th century Japan with the simple help of boots, her feet, intelligence and a map, you too could travel without technology. Another very different thing is that now that honey has been put on our lips, we know how to give it up. We live and travel very comfortably with our smartphones.
But, there are some who do it better than others. Do you want to know which country has the most digitally advanced travelers in 2018?
Travel company Travelport has released the 2018 Digital Traveler Report, a poll made to 16,200 people -who have made at least one trip this year- from 25 countries. This index also includes Spain, where 500 people have participated.
THE NEWS OF 2018
One of its main confirmations has been something that we can already imagine: mobile is crucial for the 2018 traveler.
With respect to 2017 there are three clear novelties: travelers increasingly use the voice search to organize your trips, the electronic payment is essential for them and digital keys in hotels are highly valued by this traveler 2.0.
Of all the new technologies, the one that seems to stand out are the voice searches. More than half use it to organize part of the trip. An increase of 3% compared to 2017. In China and Turkey they represent 70%.
As for the travel payment via smartphone , the study indicates that 2.1 billion travelers will pay with their mobile in 2019. 30% more than 2017, which represented 1.6 billion.
China and India lead in this regard, with almost half of those surveyed considering paying by mobile to be very important.
Who are the most digital travelers in the world?
NOT WITHOUT MY SMARTPHONE
The Travelport study confirms that more than half of those surveyed they book the entire trip through their smartphone . However, China is clearly the leader here, 100% of those surveyed book and pay for their trip through their phone.
As for applications, nine out of ten say they regularly use applications such as maps, airline apps, weather information and social networks. On average, travelers use between 10 and 12 applications during the search, the reservation and the trip.
Most of us depend on our mobile phones and it is no surprise to read that the 80% of travelers say they would be lost without them when traveling.
"Do you have wifi?": the most important question for the digital traveler
SIMPLIFY EXPERIENCES
Where do we travelers want new technologies to go? It is clear to us: most of us would like to see the biometric scan to reduce waiting in security queues, for example at airports.
Nigeria, which for the first time sneaks into the ranking, is one of the youngest surveyed populations where the percentage rises to 90%. More than half of business travelers want to check into hotels from their phones , and 50% want to use the digital key.
Another point in common is that all they take the technology they use at home with them on their travels. For example, who doesn't watch their favorite Netflix series on the plane?
and all of them prefer hotels that offer free Wi-Fi to those who do not (they avoid them outright) .
The ranking of the most digital travelers of 2018.
THE MOST DIGITAL OF 2018
China Japan...? No, ** India rises to the top of the ranking ** for the second year in a row. This is because the 69% of travelers in the country use voice search to organize their trips, more than 60% want to have digital room keys and 88% say they are influenced by social networks when choosing a destination.
Spain ranks 18th below Italy and above France. These are the 10 countries with the more digital travelers :
1. India
two. Indonesia
3. Brazil
Four. China
5. Nigeria
6. USA
7. Turkey
8. Saudi Arabia
9. Colombia
10. Mexico