Have you ever caught yourself searching for flights from work? How about booking a hotel room while on your daily commute? Or right before bed? If this all sounds like regular behaviour, don’t worry, you’re not alone. New research by KAYAK.sg reveals exactly how many of us have succumbed to the travel booking bug, and the numbers may surprise you.
The research, compiled in the 2017 ‘Travel Addicts’ Survey, show we’re a nation of travel addicts, with more than one in three (38%) travellers in Singapore showing at least some of these behaviours. The survey, which questioned over 2,000 respondents across the Asia Pacific region, gives an idea of how Singaporeans tend to make their holiday plans, as well as what they do once they’re away.
If you’ve ever wondered whether you were the only person checking prices from the train, from the office or even from the loo, have a gander down below.
When and where do Singaporean travellers book a trip?
When do you normally book your travel? Well, for 38% of travel planners from Singapore, right before bed is their favourite time to check out flight and hotel prices – perhaps providing a little dream material before turning out the lights. We’re not alone in this – across the Asia Pacific region, it’s actually fairly common practice. Indian travellers ranked highest in this regard (46%), followed by holiday planners from Hong Kong (44%) and South Korea (43%).
31% of Singaporean travellers have searched or even booked their next trips when they are still on the road. Whilst these behaviours may seem normal to many travel planners there are those who have tried booking in even more interesting places – for example, 32% of Singaporean travellers have booked a trip during their commute on public transport, while 18% even admitted to having made a booking while in the toilet, truly making good use of their “free time”.
Interestingly, booking a trip while working in the office is popular not only in Singapore (38%), but also in India (45%) and Hong Kong (48%), but not as much in Japan (18%). 4% of Singaporean respondents also said that that have booked a trip online when drunk, while 11% admitted to booking a trip while listening to a boring lecture in class.
Are Singaporeans expert deal-finders, or do we simply have trouble making decisions?
In order to find the best deal for their trip, 49% of Singaporean travellers would open multiple browsers and websites to compare for the cheapest price, with 53% even opening 4 or more websites for comparison. Such ardent deal-hunting seems to be the norm in Asia Pacific, with a regional average of 49% of travellers happy to spend the time checking 4 or more sites to make sure they find the best bargain.
On the other hand, some booking strategies are too far-fetched even for the deal-finders in Singapore. For example, deadline-fighting, where a traveller books several hotels with free cancellation policies with a plan to cancel all but the cheapest at the last minute, is only practised by 19% of Singaporeans, while 31% of Hong Kong travellers say they have tried out the tactic. The results also show that up to 31% of Singaporean travellers have gone as far as cancelling and rebooking the same hotel on the same site when a cheaper price appeared.
Social media when travelling
For many of us, wherever we go, our online presence is right there with us – sharing our amazing meals, views and activities. Amongst APAC travellers, Indians post the most – both during and after a trip, with an average of 10 posts per trip, twice as many as Singaporean travellers. Holidaymakers from Hong Kong, Korea and Japan post the least, an average of 4 posts. On the flip side, 24% of Australian respondents noted that they wouldn’t post a single picture on social media, preferring to completely shut themselves off from the virtual world when travelling.
After posting to their feed, 38% of Indian travellers say they would check their social media posts at least every few hours, to keep track of ‘likes’, whereas people from Singapore (38%), Hong Kong (44%), and Australia (34%) were more likely to check in only once or twice a day.
What about you? Do you also have some of these travel-addictive behaviours? Our hint for you is – don’t waste your time constantly checking travel prices and reviewing a thousand sites looking for the best deal. Let us do the hard part, by setting up a few KAYAK Price Alerts. We’ll let you know when the price drops as well as if we think it’ll rise again. And once you’ve got your trip planned out, keep all the bookings organised in Trips, so you’ll never miss a date again. That way, you can embrace the fun part of travelling, and let us handle the boring bits. Plan smart, manage well, and travel worry-free – with KAYAK.
Note:
The ‘Travel Addicts’ survey was carried out 2 – 11 October 2017 and surveyed 2,100 respondents across 7 APAC markets, including (in alphabetical order) Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, aged between 21 and 45, who have booked hotels or flights online in the last 6 months and have been on holiday.
