No smartphone use, we're travelling

A SURVEY conducted by Expedia, the world's largest online travel company, revealed that despite Singapore being one of the countries with the highest smartphone penetration rates in the world, Singaporeans are resistant to being constantly connected to their smartphone devices while travelling.迷你倉樂器Expedia's global study, The Future of Travel, was conducted between Aug 20 and Sept 12 to better understand the travelling idiosyncrasies of Singaporeans. It surveyed 301 persons in Singapore above 18 years and employed full time, part time or self-employed.The study showed that 21 per cent of Singaporean travellers do not use their smartphones while on a holiday, and that 63 per cent of them are almost twice as likely to make their holiday reservations through a personal computer instead of smartphones or tablets.Vikram Malhi, general manager of Expedia in South and South-East Asia, said: "Singapore travellers are increasingly keen on maximising their holidays and enjoying their time abroad", indicating that smartphone interactions during travel decrease travel s迷你倉西貢tisfaction.Despite these findings, Mr Malhi holds on to his belief that "mobile is clearly important to the future of travel". Expedia is still investing a lot into optimising and improving its mobile app.Turochas Fuad, chief executive officer of travelmob, an online vacation-rental marketplace for travellers across Asia-Pacific, shared similar sentiments.The company has just launched an iPhone app because "we do see that a third of our users are accessing our site via a mobile device and 60 per cent of that are from the iOS devices".However, to ensure optimal accessibility for his Singaporean customers abroad, Mr Fuad said: "We allow our users to access travelmob from various avenues. . . We also ensure that notifications about their travel plans are sent out via SMS and emails, allowing our users to access this information without having constant access to the Internet."Another finding produced by the study was that only 4 per cent of Singaporean holidaygoers are picky about having in-flight Wi-Fi - the rest prefer to remain disconnected on the planes.迷你倉將軍澳