2019 Global Travel Survey
Short 4-10 Day trips account for 50% of travel intention for the next 12 months.
Just over half of all respondents (54%) were female, so any perception that women weren’t as willing as men to travel solo is completely wrong!
Over 97% of our respondents said they would be travelling in the next 12 months and it looks like short sharp trips are on the rise! 50% said they travel (on average) for 4-10 days at a time, 23% for 11-20 days and only 18% were hitting the road for over 21 days.
The experiences you have while travelling is the best thing about travel
When asked what the best part about travelling was, there was a runaway winner with 72% stating Experiences (including tours & activities). The people you meet was the next best thing (16%) with the places you stay (7%), the food you eat (4%) and the things you buy (>1%) taking out the minor placings. So experiences and people are clearly the most important things for today’s traveller.
Are you mobile-ready as a travel business? You better be!
As expected, the mobile phone plays an integral role for travellers today with 83% saying they used their mobile to book one or more parts of their last trip.
Over 50% of travellers have booked tours & experiences on their mobile.
Accommodation & flights lead the way, but the big growth came in the “Experiences” vertical, with over 54% saying they had used their mobile to book a tour, activity or experience on their last trip. This is significantly higher than most industry surveys that report mobile booking for experiences closer to 30%. It looks like Travello, Klook, Get your Guide and some of the other Experience OTAs are on the right track!
Today’s travellers would rather collect experiences, not things
It’s a cliché, but it looks like it’s also the truth! Today’s travellers would rather collect experiences, not things. When asked where they preferred to spend their travel budget, experiences came out well ahead of flights, accommodation, food, beverages and transfers. It looks like they are happy to rough it on the flight and the hotel in order to get that amazing experience (and Instagram shot to prove it!)
over 20% of travellers now like to book the majority of their trip after they arrive in the destination
Mobile, phones and increased connectivity are also having an impact on the booking window, which is becoming shorter and shorter. While the majority of travellers still like to book in advance, over 20% of travellers now like to book the majority of their trip after they arrive in the destination. This correlates with the growth in solo travel and the spontaneous nature that goes along with it. Solo travellers are less bound to plans, can meet people as they go and find amazing adventures they never had planned!
Peer to peer recommendations rule the roost
And what’s the biggest influence on their travel decision making? Peer to peer recommendations! Over 31% said peer’s recommendations played the biggest part in where they went and what they did. But Trip Advisor isn’t dead just yet, with reviews (29%) coming in a close second. The days of the travel influencer might be coming to an end with only 9% saying these tanned travel gods are their biggest influence – on par with old school travel ads at 9%. So it seems the humble fellow traveller is a bigger influence than the influencers!
What would you choose travel over?
We also thought we’d have a little fun, just to see how important travel really was! And guess what – it’s pretty important! 62% said they would choose their dream trip over their dream job and 76% would choose travel over a home deposit. 80% would choose travel over sex (I guess that depends who you’re doing it with!) and just over half of respondents (53%) would actually choose travel over their partner!
- Would you choose a dream tip or a dream job?
- Would you choose a home deposit or would you use that same money to travel?
- Would you choose the love of a partner or love of travel?
- Would you choose more travel or more sex?
