The online path to purchase for Asia Pacific travelers

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

We’ve shared key global findings and now we’re doing a deeper dive into travelers from Asia Pacific (APAC) based on digital tracking data from a panel of more than 17,800 travelers 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 travelers throughout the online travel purchase journey.

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

Japanese travelers have a short planning window at 45 days and book just 45 days before trip start. At 73 days, Australian travelers have a significantly longer planning window compared to Japanese travelers, and they book 91 days prior to trip start, 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, travelers 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 travelers viewing 208 pages and spending 398 minutes with travel content. This makes Japanese travelers 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 travelers visit many online resources throughout the travel research process, online travel agencies (OTAs) are a particularly popular resource, especially for Japanese travelers, as 90% of them visited an OTA during their path to purchase. 

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

Japanese travelers, however, are more determined on where to go, as only 38% were undecided on a destination. While many Japanese travelers 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 travelers — and as many as 59% of travelers from Japan — said ads with beautiful imagery were influential. Content highlighting promotions or deals is influential for 35% of APAC travelers, which is notably lower than the global average of 46%.

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

Similarly, 73% of Japanese loyalty program 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 travelers 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.