Review: 2014 Travelers Road to Decision
Jason Toussaint L'Ouvertur Entrepreneur, Visionary, Food Style Consultant, Travel Consultant
Executive Summary The intention of this review is to analyse the study that explores habits and methods leisure and business travellers use in order to plan and execute their trip. The investigation was made by Google and Ipsos MediaCT research company, and they surveyed 5,000 customers, from which 3,500 travelled for personal reasons, and 1,500 for business. It was a 20-minute A&U survey that focused mostly on their travel habits and attitudes. The survey findings showed that search engines and YouTube were the top online sources of inspiration before deciding how to make a trip. When it comes to planning, the top planning source in leisure and business travellers was Internet with 74% and 77% respectively. Other findings where that many leisure travellers start planning without having decided the brand for car rental, air travel, lodging, cruises, vacation packages, and others. Regarding devices, business travellers tend to use more smartphones for any phase than leisure travellers, who use more computer or tablets. Travelers nowadays are adapting to the growing technological resources, and they will use all the tools they can have, in order to plan the trip that will guarantee the best experience, this is why so important for travel workers to provide the best websites and apps with easy and useful tools that will make them make their planning phase easier. Always considering the habits leisure and business travellers have when starting the traveling process.
Introduction
The following document is a review of the research made by Ipsos Media CT along with Google in order to establish the preferences and habits that influence in travel decisions. It is important to consider the difference between leisure travellers and business travellers, which have different kind of trips, and different ways of managing all the travel process; and this differences are analysed in this text. Also it is evaluated the use of different sources in each part of the process in order to establish which sources are most used on each part, what marketing opportunities do travellers’ habits provide, and which way is more efficient to attract travellers.
Methodology Google commissioned Ipsos Media CT (an independent marketing research company) to develop a study to understand the role of the Internet in making decisions related to the travel industry. The individuals who participated in the study completed a A&U survey of 20 minutes which questions where focused on travel attitudes and habits. The qualified respondents had to meet the following conditions: 21-64 years. Live in the US. Have no sensitive industry employment. Go online at least once a month.
Have some involvement in their personal/business travel decisions. The respondents who qualified were directed to one of the following sections: Airline, Cruise, Lodgings, Car Rental, and Vacation Packages. The sample of this study was of 5,000 consumers (3,500 personal and 1,500 business) who had travelled at least once for personal reasons o three for business in the las 6 months. 1,500 of the interviewed were 1,500 affluent ($250,000 and more household income) people who travelled for personal reasons in the last 6 months.
Problem Statement Inspiration Among the travel process, travellers indicate that they go online early in order to decide where or how they travel. 65% of the people that travel for leisure and 69% of the ones that travel for business use the internet to inspire themselves regarding their trip. According to the survey, the first five inspiration sources travellers said are the following: Any (92%) Family, friends, or colleagues offline (56%) Internet (56%) Social networking, video, or photo sites (83%)
Search engines (61%) Travel review sites/apps (42%) TV (39%) Family, friends, or colleagues online (32%) One of the most influential inspiration sources are travel videos. Leisure travellers usually view travel videos when: Thinking about taking a trip (65%) Thinking about what type of trip to take (48%) Choosing a destination (61%)
Travel Planning
One in three leisure travellers and one in two business travellers select an online travel agency because of its site tools and options. The first five reasons to book on online travel agencies respondents mention are: 1. Booked with an online travel agency. 2. Lower prices and better deals. 3. Past positive experience or recommendations. 4. Familiar name. 5. Better tools and options on the site. At this moment of history people are less likely to be “loyal” to travel brands, which means that they are more willing to try new brands that may offer a different and new experience than in past years. In 2012, 36% of business traveller respondents answered yes to this question “I am less likely to plan business travel based on loyalty programs or points in [current year] than I was in [prior year]”, in 2013 38%, and in 2014 41% were opened to try new loyalty programs.
Travel Process
Family Trips Plenty of families tend to take at least two family trips each year (64%), and 45% of leisure travellers plan to travel more than twice with their family in the next year. In this kind of leisure traveling, 56% consider multiple possibilities of destinations when going on a romantic getaway, 47% on vacation with kids, and 38% at a life event. When traveling with kids, families often consider the children’s preferences to decide the destination, being influenced by children in an 87%, being 8 years old the age that influences the most in the decision. The five sources more used to plan family trips are: 1. Internet (58%). 2. My child(ren) (41%).
3. Adult family, friends, colleagues offline (40%). 4. Adult family, friends, colleagues online (21%). 5. TV (20%).
Conclusions The primary source of travel inspiration is online, 65% of leisure traveller’s get inspired by online sources (mostly social/video sites and search), 42% of travellers are inspired to travel by YouTube videos. In the research phase is the best marketing opportunity, since the majority consider multiple brands when researching. Smartphones are used in the entire travel process, lot of traveller’s get inspired during their free moments, but they usually change device to the booking phase (tend to use computers).
Additional Resources All demographics where extracted from Google Travel Study, June 2014, Ipsos Media CT.