A new study by Expedia entitled The British Traveller’s Path to Purchase has revealed UK travellers spend 2.4 billion minutes engaging with digital travel content during the period.

Launched at the Phocuswright Europe conference this week in Dublin, it showed nearly one billion of those minutes is spent accessing the media via mobile, an 82% increase year-on-year.

The increase means 28 million people now access travel content on a mobile, compared to 25 million people using a desktop. However, nearly half (49%) of all people use multiple devices to engage with the content.

However, once on a mobile, browsers remain the preferred way for the public to access travel content with 64% preferring them to apps.

Despite the convenience of modern technology, the choosing and buying of a holiday remains a drawn-out process for the consumer; during the 45-day purchase path and online travel booker will visit sites more than 121 times.

The time spent online also unsurprisingly heightens towards the end of the process with the average number of visits essentially tripling.

Meanwhile more than half (54%) of UK online travel bookers start their research with multiple destinations in mind.

OTAs and search engines were the most common initial online resources used to narrow down the choice, at 12% each, while family and friends remain the most commonly used offline resource.