One in five people prefer to book a holiday via their mobile and more than half of those planning a getaway use performance marketing sites and apps to help them plan, research shows.

Figures revealed today, by Swedish-founded performance marketing network Tradedoubler, found that more than half of tech-savvy holidaymakers are rejecting travel agents in their quest to design their own dream holidays on a budget.

Among those who had taken a holiday in the past two years, 62% chose to put their own itinerary together, booking flights and hotels separately. Far fewer opted for traditional cost-saving, one-stop options such as package holidays (41%) or all-inclusive trips (20%).

Performance Marketing Sites & Apps Utilised

The second major trend uncovered by the research is travellers’ use of performance marketing sites and apps – such as price comparison, loyalty and reward, voucher code or cashback.  More than half use such sites to help them find the best price: 59% for holidays, 57% for hotels and 53% for flights.

Tradedoubler’s regional director, Dan Cohen, said: “Holidaymakers now have unprecedented levels of information and offers at their fingertips and it’s driving a significant shift in how they research and book holidays.

“One in five now book holidays using a mobile, a figure that rises to 28% among mobile-savvy 25-34 year olds. Airlines, hotels and holiday operators without a presence on the right performance channels are going to lose out.”

Even at the research stage of choosing a holiday destination, the study found that 44% of travellers are using price-focused performance marketing sites – almost as many as those that seek out ideas and information via online travel agents (50%).

Online Travel is Big Business

The ‘Performance Marketing: Travellers & Purchase Paths’ study was commissioned by the Tradedoubler Insight Unit. It was conducted online among 2,500 smartphone users who shop at least once a month on the internet; in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Poland.

The company, which said that across Europe €98.1 billion is spent online in the travel industry, making it the largest online business sector, also said that forecasts estimate that this figure will grow by 7% a year, reaching €112.2 billion in 2014.

A total of 41% of all consumer travel spend is online and this is expected to rise to 44% by 2014.