Expedia Media Solutions has taken a look at the purchase habits of APAC travelers across several generations in its latest research.

The study, conducted in conjunction with Northstar Research Partners, reveals these travelers in Australia, China and Japan, have some noteworthy travel behaviors that can influence travel marketing messages.

Australian Gen Z and Chinese Millennials travel the most, exceeding 35 days annually.

But Japan’s younger generations only travel 12 days a year and like their Chinese counterparts, they tend to travel domestically whereas younger Australians travel internationally more than fellow Australian travelers who are older.

Means of transport appears to be a function of their respective country’s geography; with time for and interest in international travel, more than two-thirds of Australians travel by plane on or from their island-continent.

Given the vast expanse of China, it’s unsurprising that 86% of Chinese travelers make their journeys by plane or train while 37% of travelers in Japan, made up of more than 6,000 islands, make the voyage by plane, with another 31% traveling by car and 25% traveling by train, which could be a testament to the country’s modern bullet trains.

Lisa Lindberg, vice president product management says:

“The data is based on the trackable behavior of millions of actual customers, which gives us billions of data points and that allows our media partners to reach them; it may be an airline who wants to reach travelers on certain routes or a hotel that wants to target customers traveling to a particular destinations during a certain time period.”

Australian travelers may stay in a hotel or with family and friends, but hotels are the top accommodation choice for Chinese and Japanese travelers.

The greatest divergence among these travelers is in their budgetary considerations; more than 40% of Japanese Millennials and Australian Baby Boomers reported budget is not the driving factor for their travel choices.

The largest part of travel expenditures for Chinese and Japanese travelers is allocated to hotels, with Chinese Millennials spending 18% of their budget on shopping.

For Japanese Gen Z travelers, price is a major factor, but their compatriots place greater priority on the food experience.

Uncovering the importance of food to so many Japanese travelers is, to some extent, a reflection of how Expedia Media Solutions’ data and the company’s work with partners has become more detailed over time.

Communicating with partners as well as the ability to track how customers arrive to an Expedia site –because it isn’t always directly—can provide insight on a variety of travel-related preferences, including the spectrum of activities that interest travelers.

The full study is available to download here.

Related reading:

Amadeus dismantles the generic APAC traveller

APAC travellers want access to agents during the trip

Compare and contrast: British Boomers, Chinese Millennials and American Generations X-ers