More Nigerians Turning To Digital Solutions To Manage Their Travel – Travelport Research

• Nigeria Ranks 5^th Overall in Global Survey of 25 Countries
• Travellers Embrace a Total Digital Travel Experience

 Nigerian travelers are forward-thinking and ready to embrace new technologies more readily than their counterparts from Europe and other parts of the world. This was a major finding of the 2018 Global Digital Traveller Research, an independent global travel study conducted by Travelport, the world’s leading global commerce platform.

The 2018 survey, which covered 16,200 respondents from 25 countries including Nigeria, showed that Nigerian travelers are digital-savvy, mobile native and ready to embrace new technology for a seamless travel experience. Nigeria ranked 5^th globally in the Digital Traveller Rankings, ahead of all the European and North American countries surveyed.

For instance, Nigerian travellers are heavily reliant on their mobile phones. 85% of travelers in Nigeria were shown in the study to use their smart phones when researching their trips, and 78% use their phones to make bookings. More than half of all travelers (66%) also said they would be lost without their smart phones, and 74% worry about their technology failing, or their phones running out of battery power.

Nigerian travelers were the most likely of those surveyed to want to share their biometrics, to facilitate a better travel experience.

Flight-related mobile apps have also become a critical feature for Nigerian travelers. They use multiple apps (an average of 13.6) when researching and booking a trip. These apps are used to search and book flights (82%), for flight alerts (75%) and for mobile check-ins (74%). Almost half of all travelers (46%) would prefer to see their trip itinerary (flights, hotels, trains, etc.) in one place, while 38% report that they find it unsatisfying to book everything separately. 45% prefer to check-in to a hotel via a mobile app. This demonstrates a clear appetite to work with travel providers which can offer a consolidated digital experience.

According to the report, not only are Nigerian travelers becoming more digitally savvy, they are actually now more discerning. 76% of them think that digital boarding passes make travel much easier, while 68% avoid hotels that charge for Wi-Fi. Clearly, free Wi-Fi has gone from a marketing opportunity to an expected necessity for most travelers.

When it comes to payments, a large number (72%) of travelers in Nigeria have used a digital wallet or payment app (e.g. Apple Pay, Alipay, etc.) at some point while traveling, while 31% use them all the time.

The report shows that review sites such as TripAdvisor tend to have a big influence on Nigerian travelers (81%), with 55% of respondents saying that it actually has the greatest influence over their travel choices. For travel research, 82% of the respondents rely on videos and photos posted by friends on social media.

Guido Verweij, Travelport’s Managing Director for Africa, said: “The 2018 Global Digital Traveller Research clearly shows that demand from Nigerian travellers for digital solutions that improve their travel experience is sky high. This is only going to escalate further in the years to come, so if you work in the travel industry and don’t already have a digital engagement plan, it’s time to get one!”

The Digital Traveller Rankings

Below is the world’s 2018 Digital Traveler Rankings with Nigeria ranked 5^th out of the 25 countries surveyed. The table is based on a combination of the main indicators of digital usage for travel-related purposes by travelers in each country.

The table shows the following rankings:

More information and an infographic, can all be downloaded on www.travelport.com/gdtr.