Growth in bookings on mobile devices is thought to be behind an increase in overall online holiday bookings.
Online bookings have increased from 76% to 83% in the last 12 months, according to ABTA’s Holiday Habits Report 2017.
Bookings on mobile devices have leapt from 13% to 20% in the past year, while PC bookings have fallen from 92% to 85%.
Booking in person remains steady, with 17% of people going in-store to book compared to 19% last year, whilst phone bookings have dropped from 21% in 2016 to 16% this year.
People from the most affluent households are the most likely to book a holiday in-store, with 29% of those classified as social grade “A” using this booking method.
A quarter (25%) of families with children under five also booked in-store. Across the UK, in-store bookings were most likely to be made by people in the East Midlands (26%), Yorkshire (25%) and the North West (23%).
While the over 65s are still the group most likely to make a booking over the phone, with over a quarter (27%) doing so, this number has fallen from 38% in 2016.
Online bookings have picked up in this age group, with 15% using a tablet (10% in 2016) and 4% using a mobile (1% in 2016), suggesting that older people are getting more used to online technology. The 18-24 years olds were most likely to let someone else book their holiday; this was true for 17% of this age group.
While the PC/laptop remains the most popular online booking device, there has been a drop in the number of people using this method to book a holiday in the last year from 92% to 85%. As in 2016, tablets were used by 23% of people. Mobiles, however have seen a jump from 13% to 20%.
PCs/laptops are still seen as the easiest device to use to make a booking, with 84% of online bookers stating this compared to 80% in 2016.
Last year, mobiles and tablets were regarded as being less easy to use, with just 54% finding booking with a tablet easy and 44% saying the same for mobiles.
However, this year, the majority of people using tablets and mobiles did not find them difficult, with 70% stating they found a tablet easy to use and 60% saying the same for mobiles.
According to a recent Deloitte report, smartphone use has reached its peak with 81% of UK adults and 91% of 18–44 year olds owning a smartphone.
