FreshTechWeb

According to research by Millennial Media, “travel grew 200% year over year” possibly due to the fact that advertisers have started to realize how popular smartphones have become.

source: Mobile Marketing Trends from the Millennial Media April 2012 S.M.A.R.T.™ Report

Consumers nowadays use their smartphones or tablets for a variety of things such as mobile gaming, blogging and microblogging, watching videos, and something I’ve noticed a lot recently is that a lot of retailers have started adding mobile versions of their sites that make it incredibly easy to buy something from them just like you would with their desktop version, most of the time it’s a hell of a lot easier too.

Another thing I’ve noticed is the ability to book and check-in to flights online before you’ve even set foot anywhere near an airport. Nearly all the time I’ve traveled, I’ve “checked-in” online before I leave the house and now, it’s even possible (for some airlines) to use your smartphone to check-in and even have a copy of your boarding pass on your mobile.

You’ll see some examples on the infographic illustrating the increasing amount of things that would have previously needed UPrinting brochure, or a brief trip to the tourist information board, have now become a simple tap and swipe to find exactly what you need. Because of this I think the increase of people traveling is partly to do with how easy it has become to book tables at restaurants, search for entertainment while on vacation or even book a hire car.

Mobile advertising has played a huge part in this too, most of us don’t pay too much attention to adverts on our desktop computers, and with some smartphones having smaller screens those sorts of ads are pretty hard to ignore. On the rare occasion we do spot that ‘must tap’ ad, it has most likely opened up a whole new world of things we wouldn’t have necessarily tried or thought of trying because sometimes it’s difficult to think outside the box!