High Costs Keep Travelers from Using Travel Apps, Says Sprint

A survey from Sprint and Harris Interactive shows that the majority of vacationers are not using helpful travel applications because of budget concerns. Wireless phone are the most popular item to pack,

Aside from laptops (50 percent), MP3 players (38 percent) and portable DVD players (17 percent), wireless phones (79 percent) are the most popular item for travelers to pack.

Use of Travel Apps

Eighty-nine percent of young adults (ages 18-34) would ideally like to have access to travel-related applications on their wireless phones, including social media web sites (34 percent), online/wireless games (19 percent) and restaurant guides (51 percent) while away. Thirty-five percent of males (ages 18-34) and 24 percent of females (ages 18-34) already use at least some travel applications on their wireless phones.

More than half of vacationers (56 percent) do not use available travel-related features on their wireless phones because of cost concerns. Sixty-one percent of these women and 65 percent of these young adults (ages 18-34) believe that the fee to run travel-related applications on their wireless phones is a deterrent to using them.

Accessibility Issues
More than one-third (37 percent) of men misrepresent their accessibility to e-mail and their wireless phone while on vacation. Young adults lead the charge in staying connected: Three-quarters (77 percent) of young adults (ages 18-34) are more likely to check their e-mail while away than their older counterparts (61 percent of those ages 55+).

Sixty-seven percent of adults prefer to use their mobile phones to keep in touch with their family members who are not with them. In terms of checking e-mail, one in three adults (31 percent) describe their e-mail checking personality as "compulsive or frequent" while on vacation.

Social Media
Thirty-eight percent of young adults (ages 18-34) who capture images/videos of their vacation prefer to share the images/videos by uploading them to social network sites.

Guess what Sprint's suggestion is to solve the cost problem...buy the Sprint everything plan.

This survey was conducted online May 20-22, 2009, within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of Sprint among 2,212 adults ages 18 and older, of whom 2,070 go away on vacation. This online survey is not based on a probability sample. Therefore, no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.