Travellers would rather take their mobile on holiday than a real friend

If a tree falls in the wood, and there’s nobody there to Instagram it, does anyone even care? CREDIT: ALAMY

•  Hannah Meltzer 

30 JUNE 2016 • 6:44PM

If you’re already annoyed about the prevalence of mobile phones in holiday destinations – and indeed society as a whole - avert your eyes now.

According to new research from Hotels.com, 76 per cent of travellers would choose a mobile phone as their top travel accessory, over even a loved one or friend. This figure rose to 85 per cent among Argentinians and a staggering 96 per cent among Russians. Britons were a little less digital dependent, although over half (55 per cent) said they would bring their mobile with them ahead of an actual living, breathing companion. 

The study, based on the responses of more than 9,000 travellers across the world, also found that holidaymakers are spending an average of three hours a day on their smartphones. This figure actually exceeded the amount of time the same group professed to spend sunbathing (though they would not all have been referring to beach breaks).

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Depressingly, 10 per cent of respondents said their mobile phone use exceeded seven hours per day.

Just under a quarter of respondents said they used their phone to keep in touch with the news and one in five said they used it for travel information, but the most popular use by far was (of course) social media, with 43 per cent of respondents saying they used social websites while away.

Perhaps unsurprisingly for anyone with a Facebook newsfeed, 40 per cent of travellers use social media to boast about their breaks, although that figure falls to a little over one in five for Britons.

Finally, while we may take great joy in activating our Out Of Office messages, it seems we are very reluctant to disconnect when we travel, as 75 per cent of holidaymakers rated Wi-Fi access as one of their most important requirements when booking a hotel. 

Writing for Telegraph Travel earlier this year, Chris Leadbeater claimed that the mobile phone had ruined travel and laid out ten reasons why including a loss of mystique, a preponderance of selfies and a failure to switch off. What do you think?