Recent research conducted by Contentsquare, a prominent player in digital experience analytics, reveals that leaders in the travel and hospitality sector are still struggling to fully comprehend the sources of consumer frustration online. The study underscores that more than one-third (41%) of website sessions are afflicted by dissatisfaction, typically arising when users encounter various obstacles during their navigation on the website.
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GLORecent research conducted by Contentsquare, a prominent player in digital experience analytics, reveals that leaders in the travel and hospitality sector are still struggling to fully comprehend the sources of consumer frustration online. The study underscores that more than one-third (41%) of website sessions are afflicted by dissatisfaction, typically arising when users encounter various obstacles during their navigation on the website.
By meticulously analyzing an extensive dataset encompassing 20.6 billion page views and 3.8 billion sessions spanning across 106 different websites, the 2023 Travel and Hospitality Digital Experience Benchmark report, provided by Contentsquare, offers valuable insights into the prevailing patterns that are molding the digital customer experience across four distinct sectors: car and transportation, entertainment and restaurants, hotels and resorts, as well as travel agencies and services.
Contentsquare senior vice president, Asia Pacific & Japan Albert Nel commented: “The tech-savvy traveller in the Asia Pacific is a new, still-evolving breed. The customer experience can make a big difference to a T&H organisation’s bottom line, particularly in the current economic climate. While brands have steadily improved their digital experiences over the years, our data tells us that frustration remains an all-too-common emotion website users feel.”
Contentsquare takeaways
Over 1 in 3 (41%) sessions are marred by frustration
Frustration emerges as a pivotal factor in thwarting successful conversions, frequently sparked by the presence of impediments that impede the journey of site visitors. These obstacles can manifest as technical glitches or inadequate website designs. Comparable to all consumers, even the ‘unknown traveller’ now nurtures elevated anticipations regarding digital interactions, seeking and insisting upon effortlessly coherent multi-channel experiences that simplify their endeavors. Regrettably, a significant portion of these ‘unknown travellers’ encountered disillusionment during their visits to travel and hospitality websites in the previous year. This discontent is evidenced by frustration-related elements influencing approximately 41% of total sessions.
Traffic was up—but conversion rates dropped
The year 2022 was widely anticipated as the era of “revenge” travel, where consumers were expected to embark on more journeys to compensate for the time lost during the pandemic. However, despite an impressive surge of +77.18% in overall traffic to travel and hospitality websites in comparison to the previous year, there was a notable decline of -1.4% in the overall conversion rates. One plausible explanation for this reduction in website conversion rates could be a simultaneous decrease in user engagement on the sites.
Metrics that gauge session involvement, encompassing parameters such as session depth, time spent per session, and scroll rate, exhibited a decline over the past year. This trend suggests the emergence of a mounting ‘consumption crisis’ that aligns with the emergence of ‘grazing’ behavior. This behavior involves consumers frequenting websites more often but displaying a propensity to explore fewer pages and engage in less scrolling down the page.
It is imperative to swiftly captivate the ‘unknown traveller’ upon their arrival. This urgency is further underscored by the noticeable increase in bounce rates across all sectors of the travel and hospitality industry throughout the previous year.
Fast sites secured more engagement
Being home to the largest population of Internet users globally, the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region has cultivated a culture of anticipating rapid page loading as a fundamental prerequisite for any online encounter. Insights extracted from Contentsquare’s data pinpoint sluggish page loading as the predominant source of frustration. This issue affected a substantial portion, specifically 21.1% (more than one in five), of travel and hospitality sessions. Notably, websites requiring more than one second to load exhibited a 7.4% elevated bounce rate compared to those that loaded in under a second.
Mobile and free traffic dominate, but desktop and paid traffic convert better
Over 2022, mobile devices contributed to a significant portion of traffic to travel and hospitality websites, accounting for 64.4% of the total. Moreover, the influx of traffic was primarily organic, with a substantial three out of every four visits originating from unpaid sources. Despite the prevalence of unpaid and mobile-based traffic, paid traffic originating from desktop devices remains crucial for the operations of travel and hospitality enterprises.
Paid traffic holds a critical role in customer acquisition, with new visitors constituting 69.7% of the total paid traffic in 2022. Additionally, it plays a pivotal role in fostering higher conversion rates, a trend observed across all travel and hospitality sectors except for one. The single exception was the travel agencies and services sector, where customers tend to display loyalty towards agencies and repeatedly engage their services.
Although numerous consumers enjoy the convenience of browsing on their mobile devices, the inclination to use larger screens for significant purchases is notable. The desire for a more extensive display to thoroughly assess details and a physical keyboard for swift and accurate data entry tends to be more pronounced when individuals are engaging in substantial transactions.
Nel added: “T&H brands need to leverage data to understand better the unique needs of the APAC traveller, many of whom are digital natives. Organisations who strategically respond to these insights will be able to maximise efficiency, deliver the digital experiences that consumers increasingly expect and emerge winners in the sector’s revival.”
Source: Contentsquare’s 2023 Travel and Hospitality Digital Experience Benchmark /TTR Weekly
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