Location-based shopping and travel services are on the rise. This growing trend is yielding some new innovations, most recently by location platform maker CSR. The company announced it will feature its new ‘urban canyon’ and indoor location technology in the Mobile World Congress ‘Experience Room’ next week.  “These will enable accurate automotive navigation throughout the city and pedestrian navigation in deep indoor environments, such as in office buildings and airports. “

This new technology will reportedly also help retailers to present shoppers “highly targeted and customised promotions/offers straight to the handset. “This yet to be announced leap for location-based services may prove to be the ideal solution for the wondering traveler, and the latest mobile ad trend development following CardStar’s Groupon integration into its mobile royalty cards service.

Location-based ad platform JiWire keeps an eye on these trends, and its freshly released JiWire Mobile Audience Insights Report for Q4 2010 reveals the mobile shopping, travel and hotspot statistics for the period.  The report indicates 53% of mobile users say location-based sales, promotions and coupons would attract them to a nearby retail store the most, and that 26% of all users research a product then buy it nearby via location-based shopping services.

Going through the travel and Wi-Fi hotspot stats, 54% of all those connecting on the go log on from hotels and resorts, 26% from cafes and 14.2 percent from airports. In turn, worldwide Wi-Fi hotspot numbers rose to 414,350+ in Q4 seeing 43.1% growth – the biggest percent to date. Also, China is now on the global lead with 102,000+ hotspots, followed by the U.S with over 93,000.