Cost of living crisis? Not for travellers, Tripadvisor data reveals
Ninety five percent of travellers would cut all non-essential spend to be able to continue to travel. That’s according to data shared at the Mumbrella Travel Marketing Summit this morning by Jessica Small, head of media, Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands at Tripadvisor.
Small took to the stage to share research focused on how travel marketers can stay ahead of the latest travel trends, and how consumer behaviour has evolved in a post-pandemic world.
Small speaking at the Mumbrella Travel Marketing Summit
While the industry continues to recover from the almost total shutdown that resulted from the COVID-19 crisis, Small asserted that the data Tripadvisor had illustrated that consumers are more than willing to open their wallets even in the midst of significant inflation.
“Their search is changing,” Small said of consumers. “We are seeing travellers prioritise new destinations this year as opposed to returning to destinations. We are also seeing an increase in spend on travel. Not only are people travelling but they are spending money.”
Small noted that experiences around the natural world, such as parks and outdoor adventures, had fallen in search popularity on Tripadvisor while wellness and relaxation-focused experiences had increased significantly.
“We are seeing people that are more and more interested in wellness and experiences that allow them to relax and unwind. Shopping is making a big move upwards as well.
“Travel has the highest perceived ROI,” Small added. “One in five consumers consider travel to be the most worthwhile purchase.”
Despite this, it’s still an onerous path to purchase and one that travel marketers need to be aware of.
Small asserted that the consumer starts to plan 2-3 months prior to departing, while a huge amount of research is done one month prior. Three days prior to departure, consumers visit travel sites 8-10 times per day for research.
Significantly though, consumers take around 30 visits to travel sites before making a conversion.
APAC leads the charge in terms of travel spending for July according to Tripadvisor. It increased 53% YOY. To put that in context, the US market only increased 3% in the same period.
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