Mobiles vital in keeping tourists moving

Mobile devices have become an essential tool for many tourists and especially for Chinese people and are now indispensable for the whole travel process, with holidaymakers relying on them to make bookings, find travel information and share experiences, said tourism industry insiders.

"As many as 87 percent of Chinese respondents selected the smartphone as the first must-have during a trip," said Zhu Ming, vice-president of strategic partnership and account management at Tripadvisor China. "In China, it has become an irresistible trend that the availability of tourism products and services on mobile devices must be taken into account throughout the entire tourism service chain."

Zhu, who spoke during the opening forum of the Shanghai World Travel Fair, which opened on Thursday, said travelers were relying on their phones for every stage of their travel experience.

His comments were supported by a global survey conducted by Tripadvisor, the US-based company that operates the world's largest travel website. It said three in four of the tourists it deals with said their smartphones were the items they reach for first when traveling.

The Tripadvisor survey, which polled more than 44,000 tourists and tourism insiders in 32 countries and regions, also showed that 12 percent of Chinese tourists booked their entire trip — hotel and flight — on their mobile devices.

China's leading online tourism agency, Ctrip.com, said 70 percent of the orders it received in the first quarter the year were made through mobile channels.

"Moreover, more tourists are using their mobile devices to search websites to look for travel reviews when deciding on such things as which restaurant and accommodation to choose," Zhu, from Tripadvisor China, said.

Yu Xiaojiang, chief operating officer of the vacation business department at Ctrip.com, said mobile devices are helping travelers be more spontaneous.

"We have noticed that a declining number of tourists are making detailed plans before they set out," Yu said. "However, consumption at destinations has risen to more than half of the total travel expenditure for a Chinese tourist in recent years. So, there's so much potential for travel service providers to send customers precise information through mobile platforms about catering, shopping, and local activities at the destination."

And Yu said tourists are also increasingly relying on their smartphones to deal with emergency situations while traveling.

"Some travel agencies have therefore developed smartphone apps to give instant responses to tourists' reports about flight changes, the service quality of a tour guide, and to offer information about natural disasters and even terrorist attacks," he said.

Purchasing coupons and making payments are another two main functions people use their smartphones for during a trip, said Zhao Xinyu, managing director of Northeast Asia for consumer choices business at German market intelligence firm GFK.

"Roughly 84 percent of people born between 1984 and 1995 are comfortable with making mobile payments, according to our survey earlier this year," Zhao said. "The ratio is the world's highest."