What media air travelers choose to inform their friends and relatives about their flights, provided with a choice between SMS, email and social media? See our latest stats on that topic.

ArrivedOK is the service that notifies your designated recipients about your arrival to airports worldwide. ArrivedOK doesn’t do this by tracking flights, it does it by tracking your cell phone when you switch it on in your destination. Once it has been detected as on in the visiting mobile network the arrival notifications are sent out automatically. Users can choose how to send those alerts – by SMS, email, or via social media/networks.

And here comes the interesting part – what media air travelers choose to deliver their arrival alerts? Our latest stats say that despite all that social media buzz, people still prefer SMS and good old email. Perhaps because email notifications are free of charge at ArrivedOK, one might say, but that’s not the case: ArrivedOK provides all social media alerts for free too but they show dramatically lower popularity.

Here is the percentage of all ArrivedOK arrival notifications by media channels (March 2009 – January 2010):

LinkedIn is not included in the stats as we just integrated recently.

One thing could explain the popularity of SMS among our users – ArrivedOK text alerts are remarkably cheaper than roaming text tariffs, but that does not explain the lower usage of social media services, which are completely free.

We would say that Twitter is doing fine, Facebook is overrated, and Blogspot and LiveJournal numbers reflect the decline of blogging.

This is basically European stats as we don’t currently provide the service in the United States and China (though we’re working on it).

ArrivedOK website – http://www.arrivedok.mobi
ArrivedOK Partnership – http://partners.arrivedok.mobi

August 13, 2008

In the first quarter of 2008, the number of outbound tourists reached a staggering 1,869,511, up 29% year on year from 2007, according to Federal Tourist Agency figures. According to the Russian Tourist Industry Association, 9.36m Russians went on holiday abroad in 2007, 20.8% more than in 2006, with 1.9m going to Turkey, and 1.2m to Egypt. 

Source: www.russiaprofile.org

Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport, with 89.4 million passenger arrivals and departures 2007 year, atop the list of the world’s busiest terminals.
Chicago’s O’Hare came in second with 76 million passengers and London’s Heathrow was in third with 68 million.

Rounding out the top 10 were Tokyo Haneda, 67 million; Los Angeles, 62 million; Paris’ Charles De Gaulle, 59.9 million; Dallas-Fort Worth, 59.7 million; Frankfurt, Germany, 54.2 million; Beijing, 53.6 million; and Madrid, Spain, 52.1 million.

The fastest growth occurred in the Middle East, with an 11.3% increase, followed by Africa, 11.2% and Asia-Pacific, 9.1%, the council said. North America had the slowest growth at 3.5%, and Europe turned in 7.4% growth.

Source: www.usatoday.com

I just have to re-post it. I will comment also. The title-quote for this post is:

“I’m a strong believer that ubiquitous mobile communication is facilitating productivity in business travelers”

That’s VERY true. What else could be good? Travel-specific applications.

“NEWSWEEK: What do you think will be the next big technological breakthrough for travelers?
CLARKE: The next trend is user-based content. Historically when people wanted to find out about a place they’d go to a travel guide or perhaps the Web site of a particular hotel or destination. Now people want to hear real experiences. They want reviews.”

I think it’s a very good point. And now some stats:

“Where is growth strongest?
In China, particularly, we’re seeing new hotel properties popping up, and significant traffic intra-China. But Russia is by far one of the largest and fastest growing travel markets; over the past year, we’ve seen 19 percent growth, from about 7 and a half million plane trips to about 9 million. We’re also seeing 11 percent in India and 8 percent in China. In the U.S., overseas traffic is the largest in the world but flat, at roughly 106 million outbound passengers a year.”

Russia and China — we welcome these countries. :) But look at the US: 10 times of Russia!

“How have the travel demographics changed?
In Asia, the generation born right after World War II was less comfortable with English. What you’re seeing now is the proliferation of the English language around the world and that’s helping people travel. Younger people in general feel more comfortable traveling as independents rather than in packs. Older generations typically would go and hit the museums and other traditional sites. Now the industry is more fragmented, creating opportunities where people will go not only to experience another culture but to actually participate in another culture.

Another interesting trend is verticalization: certain demographic segments are traveling together. In the U.S. it may be college kids going on spring break. But we’re also seeing huge growth in gay travel, family travel, religious travel.”

By the way, did I tell you that Travelport owns Orbitz?

“What do tourists want?
In the developing world, there’s less ability for consumer travel. At a destination, you’ll see more economy-based hotels. Particularly for Indian visitors, what we find is a very significant interest in being able to cook their own food. So Indians will typically try to find hotels that have kitchens available. Russians, like the Japanese, tend to be more brand-centric. Destinations historically have been areas of high-end shopping: London, Paris, New York, whereas Indians are more likely to take commercial and/or family vacations.” 

“Is constant connectivity an asset or a detriment when traveling?
I’m a strong believer that ubiquitous mobile communication is facilitating productivity in business travelers and also, of course, allowing vacationers to keep in touch while they’re away. I was in Cabo San Lucas last weekend and in one little dirt-road village I saw outside of town, they had a restaurant, a jewelry store for crafts and an Internet café.”

SITA and Cambridge University researched. They found:

1) “location sensing via mobile devices could save airlines up to $600 million by tracking passengers, sending messages and moving them to gates more efficiently”

2) “by the end of 2010, 67% of airlines plan to offer mobile check-in. By then 82% of airlines also plan to offer notification services on mobiles.”

3) at “a trial at Manchester Airport in the UK, redemption of vouchers sent to passengers’ mobile phones resulted in 45% higher spending than among other shoppers.”

Sources:

ComputerWeekly.com

SITA