Amadeus has issued what it claims is “the most comprehensive research on Asia Pacific (APAC) travellers to date”, and concludes that there is no such thing as an Asia Pacific traveller.

“The most startling observation from the study is that there is no consistent profile for the Asia Pacific traveller. Stark contrasts in behaviours, needs and preferences were observed across all geographic and demographic lines,” the report says.

Having said this at the start, the “Amadeus Journey of Me Insights” then proceeds to talk, in generic terms, about the APAC traveller. The report does however include some significant country-specific observations from the 14 source markets covered in the report – Australia, China , Hong Kong, India, Indonesia , Japan , Korea , Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan , Thailand and Vietnam.

China and India tend to dominate the conversation around APAC, but there are many other big markets in the region which are starting to make their presence felt on the global online travel map.

Indonesia is – or will increasingly become – under the spotlight after Expedia Inc spent $350 million on a minority stake in Traveloka earlier this summer. Traveloka is the biggest online travel agent in Indonesia and also operates in Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.

The Amadeus study is unlikely to reveal anything Expedia didn’t know already, but the specifics of the Indonesian traveller might shed some light for the rest of us on where the opportunities lie. For example, 80% of Indonesians in the sample are the most willing to share personal data in exchange for receiving personalised service and offers – the highest in the region.

In contrast, the Japanese are the most protective of their privacy – 69% are not prepared to share their data.

APAC generally is seen as a mobile-first market, although Indonesia is only one of two in the region where mobile is a bigger booking channel than desktop – the other is China. Some 62% of Indonesians book via mobile, while nearly seven in ten (69%) research on mobile.

In contrast, the markets where desktop is the most dominant booking channel compared with mobile are Australia, Japan and New Zealand.

Expedia Inc’s deal with Traveloka also included a “cooperation on global hotel supply” – of interest because 43% of Indonesians book their accommodation before their flight (or “transport”) – the proportion of room-first bookers is even higher in some of Traveloka’s other points of sale – Thailand (47%), Vietnam (53%) and the Philippines (57%).

Serving travellers in-destination is an increasingly important part of the travel landscape. In this context, Traveloka’s position as the Indonesians’ most used app when travelling means it is a strong position to upsell during the trip.

The omens are good for being the most used app – Ctrip and MakeMyTrip are the Chinese and Indian travellers’ in-destination app of choice, reflecting their dominant positions. This suggests that travellers want to be in contact with a familiar interface when on a trip, not great news for the many and varied startups or niche players in the region which are targetting in-destination business.

Google probably knows already that Google Maps is widely used by APAC travellers – it makes the top three in all but two of the twelve markets in the Amadeus report – the exceptions are China and Indonesia.

One in-destination product line which has failed to gather any momentum across the region is last-minute hotel bookings. Country specifics are not mentioned, but in this case are irrelevant when only 2% of the entire sample says they have booked accommodation after getting to their destination.

Click here to download the report in full (45-page PDF)

Click here to read the press release