The online path to purchase for Asia-Pacific travellers

To provide partners with actionable insights on how to reach, inspire and convert travellers during the online travel shopping journey, we worked with Luth Research on a custom study that explores the online path to purchase and traveller behaviour insights across seven geographic markets. The research was conducted using digital tracking data from a panel of 70,000+ travellers and survey data from more than 5,700 respondents.

We’ve shared key global findings and now we’re doing a deeper dive into travellers from Asia-Pacific (APAC) based on digital tracking data from a panel of more than 17,800 travellers and survey data from more than 1,640 respondents across Australia and Japan. Read on for more APAC travel insights to help you reach and convert APAC travellers throughout the online travel purchase journey.

When looking at the time spent for trip planning and overall trip length, Australian and Japanese travellers have notable differences. Australian travellers take trips lasting 11.1 days on average, compared to 3.4 days for Japanese travellers—both deviating from the global average of 8.8 days.* 

Japanese travellers have a short planning window at 45 days and book just 45 days before starting a trip. At 73 days, Australian travellers have a significantly longer planning window compared to Japanese travellers, and they book 91 days prior to starting a trip—longer than the 73-day global average.

Content continues to play a starring role in the path to purchase, indicating the importance of using compelling copy and visuals across property listings, ads, social media and more. 

In the 45 days prior to booking a trip, travellers from APAC view 149 pages of travel content (compared to 141 pages, on average) and spend 298 minutes with travel content. Japanese travel content consumption is higher than the global average, with Japanese travellers viewing 208 pages and spending 398 minutes with travel content. This makes Japanese travellers some of the highest consumers of travel content, despite their shorter planning windows. On the other hand, Australians consume less travel content than average, viewing 91 pages of travel content and spending 229 minutes with travel content in the 45 days before booking.   

While APAC travellers visit many online resources throughout the travel research process, online travel agencies (OTAs) are a particularly popular resource—especially for Japanese travellers, as 90% of them visited an OTA during their path to purchase. 

Early in the path to purchase, destination flexibility in Australian travellers is higher compared to their Japanese counterparts. Before selecting where to go on their trip, more than half (56%) of Australian travellers did not have a specific place in mind or considered multiple options, indicating that they are open to destination inspiration. 

However, Japanese travellers are more determined on where to go, as only 38% were undecided on a destination. While many Japanese travellers have their mind set on a particular place, this does not mean they aren’t open to inspiration, as 76% of those who used social media for travel planning said they used it for destination inspiration.

When asked about impactful advertising, 55% of APAC travellers—and as many as 59% of travellers from Japan—said that ads with beautiful imagery were influential. Content highlighting promotions or deals is influential for 35% of APAC travellers, which is notably lower than the global average of 46%.

Membership and perks are another driving factor that influences travellers’ booking decisions. Approximately half of Australian travellers are members of a loyalty programme, and of those travellers, 73% feel it’s important to book with a brand where they are a member. Additionally, 51% would pay more to book with a brand where they are a loyalty member. 

Similarly, 73% of Japanese loyalty programme members also find it important to book with brands they’re affiliated with and 65% would pay more to do so. However, only 25% of Japanese travellers are loyalty members, revealing a strong opportunity for growth in this region.

For more APAC travel insights, download the country snapshots for Australia and Japan, and read the full Path to Purchase study for more global findings.