KARACHI: For the second time, the Pakistan’s Hospitality Report by Jovago Pakistan sheds light on major travel trends in the country, looking at how the local sector compares with counterparts on the global map; its rapid development, impending barriers and the impact of technology on the changing domestic travel landscape. “The findings are compiled from data gathered from the 2,000 plus Pakistani hotels partnering with Jovago, showing not only an increase in the absorption of technology in the sector but also a remarkable growth in domestic travel spending,” remarked CEO Nadine Malik. The research shows Pakistanis still prefer their mobile phones when it comes to hotel searches, accounting for 61% of traffic to websites as compared to the 39% computer sourced traffic. The trajectory is almost duplicated when it comes to placing actual bookings – 63% of visitors book via computers while the remaining 37% click on their smartphones. In accordance to the conventional belief, there are more men visiting the website at 80% as compared to women who take up 20%. In what now seems like a trend and lifestyle devotion, Pakistanis still prefer staying in three-star hotels as compared to any other rating. As per the report, 36% of all bookings are made for 3-stars hotels, followed by 32% for 2-stars hotels, 20% for 4-stars hotels, 10% for 1-star hotel and 2% for 5-stars hotels. Jovago Pakistan Managing Director Tina Wang attributed this shift to the growing number of properties now enjoying online, thus global presence, “Through the last two years, we have developed a unique solution for hotel managers to gain online visibility and have empowered them to manage all bookings through the Extra-Net app. By virtue of joining our platform, this enables them to not just get bookings but also headlined with automation in the industry.” The fact that the platform has also adapted the use of local languages such as Burmese, as well as established local offices across the continent has also highly boosted their partner-customer-relations due to improved access and proximity.