Travelers don’t stick to one device when researching and booking travel

Travel companies already knew that consumers are accessing their sites and apps using multiple types of devices, but recent research shows that individuals resort to “cross-device activity” when researching and booking travel.

That’s a finding from a recent JiWire Mobile Audience Insights Report, which traces first quarter of 2013 activity.

The report indicated that 48% of consumers who researched travel on a smartphone, then booked the travel on a tablet, for example.

And 31% of respondents booked travel on a smartphone after using a tablet to conduct their research, the report found.

However, despite this “multi-device usage,” there is a strong correlation between the device consumers use to research and purchase,” the study states.

In fact, the report adds, “the highest purchase percentage for smartphones came from those who also researched on smartphones. The same correlation applies for tablets and laptops.”

Here’s more detail on device usage for travel research and transactions:

The report, which queried 1,300 JiWire Wi-Fi and mobile advertising platform users in March, found that 52% of respondents used a smartphone or tablet when booking travel over the previous 90 days — and that was a higher percentage than those who booked travel using a laptop.

It’s not surprising that smartphones are the least favored means for booking travel when using one device type, the report shows.

When travelers purchased travel using a solitary device, the laptop still ruled at 34%, but 47% of users favored multiple devices, the study found.