comScore has released its 2018 EU Travel Report based on desktop and mobile data from Internet users in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.
Some key findings:
- Shares and absolute numbers of digital consumers visiting travel websites vary among countries:
- UK 94% (39M people)
- Spain 86% (25M)
- Italy 69% (24M)
- France 67% (26M)
- Germany 65% (35M)
- Average online travel spend per buyer in 2017 varied also:
- Germany EUR 459, +24% from 2016
- France EUR 451, +62%
- UK EUR 408, +7%
- Spain EUR 402 +15%
- Italy EUR 352 (flat)
- Compared with desktop applications, relatively few mobile apps have mass-market appeal for Europeans as yet.
- On average, Brits spend the most time on travel sites in a month (67 minutes), Italians the least (37 minutes).
- Consumers in France, Italy and Germany tend to spend much time on national sites of their own country, indicating a greater demand for domestic travel.
- Share of time spent on travel sites using mobile devices varies among countries, but is significantly less than time spent on desktop in all countries:
- UK 33% on mobile
- Spain 20%
- Italy 19%
- Germany, France 14%
- Across countries. Airbnb gets the most traffic.
- Across countries, Europeans make relatively few travel purchases on mobile devices.
- Across countries, Europeans spend the most time on ticketing sites.
So, actionable items for those targeting Europe with travel/tourism offerings:
- Have a solid mobile presence, keep up with advancing technology, but don't neglect desktop.
- Consumers in the UK and Spain are more easily reached digitally than those in Italy, France or Germany.
- German and French travelers are the biggest spenders, but do a lot of their traveling domestically - so international per-trip spend may be less.
- Lodging and local tour businesses need to keep an eye on Airbnb and find creative ways of competing against it.
- Make it easy for Europeans to book and pay online, using digital wallets and other systems popular in the EU.