Kitcatt Nohr Digitas: Travel brands need to understand what consumers want

Trends in consumer behavior and other areas are forcing brands in the travel and tourism sector to evolve and focus more on the needs and desires of consumers, rather than just the operational needs of the business.

Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, once said: “There is no limit to the adventures we can have if we only seek out the elements of thrill and excitement for ourselves.”

The travel and tourism sector continues to evolve, with more than a billion people around the world travelling, but what are they looking for?

The answer is undoubtedly related to two aspects, one is related to socio-economic factors, the other is the driving force of technological development. In such a world, the challenge facing travel companies like Thomas Cook is how to identify and understand these phenomena.

(Thomas Cook's new advert, starring actor James Nesbitt)

Let's start with the economic factors. Obviously people don't have much money, or so we thought. At the end of 2012, only 20% of British consumers said they were "confident that we can get through this difficult time". The rest of the British consumers said "I am really worried" or "the current economic environment is bad enough, and the future situation can't get any worse". In addition, the fear of the collapse of the eurozone is pressing on the fragile economic environment, and everyone is facing challenges.

We are no longer seeing holidays as an inalienable right and necessity, but now as something that people can simply enjoy, and the number of people who think so now is twice as high as before. People no longer see holidays as a necessary part of their annual budget, and we are ready to reduce the number of short trips. I believe that many people will choose to stay at home or go to nearby destinations for a staycation. The lower cost and more convenient local holidays in the UK are more attractive to consumers, especially in the current summer travel situation.

Marketing cycle

In response to changes in traveler behavior, companies must adjust their products and marketing cycles. Booking windows have been greatly reduced as travelers want to avoid uncertainty and losses. As consumers are tightening their belts, the volume of packaged vacations with high cost performance is also increasing. In general, we all want to get the best value in all aspects.

Consumer behavior has not changed much from an economic standpoint alone, but because of the tremendous advances in technology, consumer attitudes and behaviors have evolved.

We may not have much money, but we have endless needs. Technology has enabled many of our travel-centric needs and desires to be met, and now we can all become “independent explorers.”

Because we have instant access to a vast amount of information, we tend to expect service providers to provide a seamless and smooth travel experience and a variety of personalized options. Travelers also have these demands for packaged vacation products, and these service providers need to compete to provide travelers with these experiences and features.

The trend is creating more options: independent travel is growing; digital-free vacations are gaining traction with some travelers, while others value a destination based on how much free Wi-Fi it offers; new business models are emerging, such as renting out seats on private jets and providing campers with their own gardens; and fair trade activities are gaining ground.

To borrow a phrase from Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company: We are now satisfied with any color as long as we like it.

Travel Revolution

The Internet may have opened up a world of possibilities for individuals, but it has also had a huge impact on the travel industry, causing many traditional travel agents to close their doors. Over the past decade, the way consumers research and book travel has changed.

A whole new revolution is now brewing: smartphones and tablets are becoming the devices that consumers prefer, and the continued development of social media is also accelerating the process of mobileization.

Currently, more than 50% of mobile users in the UK use smartphones, and two-thirds of them use smartphones for social media-related activities. British users spend about 20% of their time on Facebook.

Mobile channels are in many ways the ideal platform for the travel industry, they are personal, portable, geo- and time-specific devices that users can use at all touchpoints throughout their actual journey, especially when they need them.

The same is true for social media, which is becoming increasingly important as companies turn marketing into services and manage reputation more effectively, relying more on third parties for revenue management than in the past. The key to innovation in social media may be tracking what consumers and their friends are doing.

What does this mean? Essentially, creating holiday products is no longer an independent external process that is only guided by the operational needs of the tour operator. It needs to change to a more personalized and relevant direction, where the essence of these products and services is the needs of the consumer.

Every man is an emperor now, we are all extremely mysterious and multifaceted beings. So the real challenge for the travel and tourism industry is to understand the components of human psychology, the complexity of human needs and how these needs change due to social, technological and economic stimuli.

via: traveldaily