Sojern today published its fourth Global Travel Insights report of 2018, which offers a quarterly look at travel trends from around the world.

“With Christmas and New Year holidays falling mid-week this year, across the globe we see more than one-third of travelers planning trips in December for a duration of 12 days or more, and the majority are planning to stay within their region,” comments Jackie Lamping, VP of Marketing at Sojern. “Travelers are planning trips far in advance this year—and planning long durations—providing a lucrative opportunity for forward-thinking travel marketers to influence the holiday path to purchase. Sojern’s top clients are already in market with campaigns capitalizing on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, which are now proven channels for influencing travelers all the way from dreaming to booking.”

Top findings looking back at Q3 include:

Travelers opting for longer trips closer to home this December

For December trips, those North Americans who are traveling within the region are looking more at extended stays—with 33 percent of short-haul searches being for eight days or more. This trend is also happening across the globe with more than 50 percent of LATAM and the Middle East and Africa travelers planning short-haul trips of 12 or more days. More than one-third of all European and Asia-Pacific travelers are also searching for extended short-haul trips of more than 12 days.

The Middle East and Africa Leads The Way With Mobile Searches

In the Middle East and Africa, 53 percent of all travel searches in Q3 conducted on mobile devices. Compare that with 51 percent of European travelers searching on mobile, followed by 45 percent in Asia-Pacific and 40 percent in Latin America. In contrast, North American travelers favored desktop with a significant 69 percent of travelers still using desktop for their travel searches.

Asian-Pacific Travelers Are Earliest Planners

In Asia-Pacific, 42 percent of travelers planned trips 60 or more days in advance of the departure date in Q3. This was significantly higher than all other global travelers with Latin Americans following the closest behind with a still notable high 40 percent of travelers searching 60 or more days out from their departure date. 36 and 33 percent of European and North American travelers searched 60 days in advance respectively. According to Sojern data, the Middle East and African travelers conducted the least searches more than 30 days in advance.