The latest Japan Tourism Marketing’s survey on use of smart phone and travel consumption finds that the use rate of the image posting app on smart phone almost doubled to 12.5% from 6.7% in the previous survey in 2014, while the use rate of telephone and e-mail reduced.
The highest use rate was found in map (78.4%), followed by weather report (69.8%) and train connections (67.5%). It was noteworthy that the use rate of image and move processing apps was higher among 29 years old or younger females particularly.
The use trend of smart phone apps is as follows:
Regarding travel, the ratio of use for booking or purchasing travel products reached 32.6%, 4.3 higher points than the previous survey. The ratio remarkably rose to 47.6% among 20 years older or younger females and 30’s females.
A product segment booked or purchased most on smart phone was accommodation (17.3%), followed by travel in Japan tour (10.3%), restaurant (5.7%) and air ticket (5.5%). Booking or purchasing accommodations and restaurants are particularly popular among 30’s males, and the ratios of booking or purchasing event tickets, rent-a-car and other many items were higher among 29 years old or younger females.
The booking or purchasing trend on smart phone is as follows:
The most popular SNS posting travel experiences was Facebook (64%), followed by Twitter (43.1%). Instagram (5th) and YouTube (6th) rapidly grew from 5.5% to 15.1% and from 5.2% to 11.5% respectively. The most popular posting format was photo/image (93.4%), and the ratio of movie posting was up from 6.4% to 8.5%.
Japan Tourism Marketing analyzed that movie posting for travel experiences is expected to increase, as YouTube users tend to increase. Also, they pointed out that it is taken for granted that smart phone is a tool used for a variety of purposes from daily communication to purchase.
The survey was conducted online in the period from September 24 to 26 2015. Out of 10,000 18 to 69 years old males and females for the screening survey in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka areas, 1,030 smart phone users with travel experiences (more than one travel including daytrip in the last year) were subject to the survey.
In Japanese
