While one in five Thai travellers put a lot of research into planning trips to ensure they have the best trip possible, close to 20% think on-the-go planning is the best way to discover new things, with 11% getting a thrill from spontaneity, says Booking.com.
Technology fuels both planning and spontaneity when it comes to travel. More Thai travellers are becoming tech-savvy when it comes to finding local hotspots and hidden gems while on vacation, said the hotel booking website, citing new research.
Technology is also widely used. According to Booking.com, 75% of Thai travellers frequently use technology to enable limitless travel, 77% use it for navigating an unfamiliar destination, 67% use it for local insights, 52% use it for entertainment and 37% use it for amending a trip on the spot.
Even with technology at hand, 86% of Thai travellers have made travel mistakes. The most common mistakes are misunderstanding directions and getting lost (56%), misunderstanding what was ordered in a restaurant (25%), getting caught in a tourist trap and overpaying (22%), mispronouncing a word in the local language (18%), not reading reviews before booking place to stay (17%) and packing the wrong clothes (15%).
Nonetheless, Thai travellers embrace mistakes and learn from them to make for a better experience. Close to 54% say that's what travel is all about, while 43% even find it funny to make travel mistakes.
Globally, technology plays an important factor for Generation Z; so much so that when travelling to a remote location, 30% of 18- to 24-year-olds least enjoyed the lack of technology, whereas 31% of the rest of the age group didn't like the feeling of being isolated from the rest of the world. This rose to 36% for 55- to 64-year-olds.
Some 45% of respondents liked travelling to a remote location because the journey there was an adventure in itself and they enjoyed the untouched and undeveloped landscape. This figure rose to 52% of travellers 65 and older.
In total, Booking.com's survey included the opinions of 20,500 respondents from Australia, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, China, Brazil, India, the US, Britain, Russia, Indonesia and Thailand.