65 TRAVEL
STATISTICS
TO KNOW IN
2018-2019
For tour & activity operators
So here you go! Below are 65 travel and tourism statistics to know in
2018/19, and the insights we've been talking about most here at
TrekkSoft’s HQ. We hope that these statistics help your company get the
most from the year ahead and gives you a taste of what to expect in our
2019 Travel Trends Report.
1. Booking Trends
2. Destination Insights
3. Tour & Activity Industry Insights
4. Travel Trends
5. Marketing Insights
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Travel Trend
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2 57% of travelers feel that brands should tailor their information based on
personal preferences or past behaviors. (Google/Phocuswright, 2017)
In the US, data shows that 26% of travel searches in the fourth quarter of
7 2017 occurred on a mobile device. In other parts of the world, it’s even
higher: Travel searches conducted on a mobile device totaled 47% in
Europe; 40% in Asia; 38% in the Middle East and Africa; and 34% in Latin
America. (Sojern Global Travel Insights, 2018)
11 Using the key phrase "hotel tenerife", Hermann Valsson looked at the
ten countries sending the most tourists to the popular holiday
destination. According to the research. Span, Germany, Ireland and
Denmark all had ten out of ten links to OTAs. (PhocusWire, 2018)
12 Travel-related searches for "tonight" and "today" have grown over 150%
on mobile, over the past two years. (Google Data, 2017)
14 More than 60% of U.S. travelers would consider an impulse trip based
on a good hotel or flight deal. (Google/Phocuswright, 2017)
38% of bookings are made on the same day or two-days before a trip,
15 53% are made within a week of a trip, and just 19% are made in
advance. (PhocusWright, 2017)
Key Takeaways:
● Personalize your customer booking process by finding out what
products are of interest and how/when they prefer to book.
● Reduce cut-off times to capture as many last-minute bookings.
● Drive SEO with content by writing as you would speak and creating
blog posts around commonly asked questions.
Destination Insights
Traveler destinations have changed
16 Kayak released their 2018 travel hacker guide based on identified cities
around the world with the greatest year-over-year increase in search
between March 3, 2017 and February 28, 2018. Top of the leader-board
was Maui, Hawaii with a 51% increase in searches, followed by Barcelona,
Bali, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Las Vegas, Madrid, Athens, Paris and Rome.
(Kayak, 2018)
18 Travel spend is increasing year on year. The average international trip for
American travelers now costs $6,080. Norway was the most expensive
destination for American travelers, with an average trip costing $9,754.
(Squaremouth, 2018)
In January 2018, travel spending on desktop computers averaged €350 to
19 €460 per buyer, for EU5 countries. While Germany had the highest
average spend per buyer, France had the biggest increase in average
spend with 62% year on year growth compared to January 2017. (EU
Travel Report, 2018)
20 45% of travelers have a travel bucket list in mind and 82% of them plan
to tick one or more destinations off their list in the coming year. Most
likely to feature on a bucket list is seeing one of the wonders of the
world, as almost half of travelers (47%) will look to tick this off in 2018.
Over a third (35%) yearn to tantalize their taste buds by trying a local
delicacy, 34% want to head to an island paradise and 34% are thrill
seekers wanting to visit a world famous theme park. (Booking.com, 2018)
The other top travel activities to compete in 2018 look set to be
experiencing a unique cultural event (28%), learning a new skill (27%),
going on an epic road or rail journey (25%) and visiting a remote or
challenging location (25%). (Booking.com, 2018)
23 ‘Getting off the beaten track’ was the most common interpretation with
43.4% ticking the box. Other items on the list were ‘Seeing or doing
something new’ (26.6%) and ‘High adrenaline activities’ (22.5%).
‘Traveling on a budget’ received 6.4% of the votes and ‘Other’ 1.1%.
(Intrepid Adventure Travel Index, 2018)
24
28 In 2018, it will be important for travelers that their host is available but
not too overbearing (30%) and one in ten (12%) want a host who they
don’t have to speak to at all. (Booking.com, 2018)
29 One in three travelers (33%) say they’d prefer to stay in a holiday rental
(a holiday home or apartment) over a hotel. (Booking.com, 2018)
Tour and Activity
Industry Insights
31 Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky shared that ‘three in four millennial's said
they’d rather buy an experience than a physical good’ showing a strong
opportunity for growth for Airbnb Experiences. (Recode, 2018)
37 In 2017, historical and heritage experiences may have topped the list of
fastest-growing categories for global travelers (+125% in bookings), but
aquatic activities dominated the top ten, taking half of the top spots.
Sunset cruises (+86% in bookings), snorkeling (+70%), kayaking and
canoeing experiences (+67%), sailing trips (+61%), catamaran trips
(+60%), and all ranked in the year’s fastest-growing categories.
“Two of the three most popular products in 2017 were skip-the-line,
and likewise for four of the ten fastest-growing experiences in 2017.”
TripAdvisor listed more than 1,200 skip-the-line tickets globally and
reported that these were the second-fastest growing category for US
travelers by gross booking value in 2017. (TripAdvisor Travel Trend
Report, 2018)
Skift also reports that Europe (37%), Asia (30%) and Africa & Middle
East (12%) are the top three regions where Viator's inventory comes
from. For Expedia, a majority of inventory comes from Europe (34%),
Asia (26%) and US & Canada (21%). GetYourGuide have the largest
market in Europe (57%), followed by Asia (15%), Africa & Middle East
(11%) and US & Canada (9%). (Skift, 2018)
“This guy Dave Coleburn is a host in Seattle. He’s got this nonprofit called
Predators of the Heart. And essentially it’s a wolf conservation, so you go
hiking in the woods with wolves. And he’s going to make $200,000 a year
doing that. We have people outside of Florence, two chefs who are going to
make $140,000 a year and they just pick people up at the train, take them to
their house, and you learn to make pasta at their home and make a meal
with them. It’s a really great experience, people love it.” (Airbnb CEO Brian
Chesky, Fortune, 2017)
Key Takeaways:
Offline and direct website bookings are still the biggest source for tour
and activity sales.
● Ensure your website is easy to use and experiences can be booked
in real time.
● Get connected with your local tourism office and resellers in the
area who have a lot of foot traffic and attract walk-ins.
● Have on-street presence for your tours and activities, whether it is
a prominent advert, busy meeting point or a sales desk.
Online bookings through OTAs are growing quickly.
● Negotiate good commission rates to sell your tours and activities
through OTA channels.
● Work with 2 - 3 OTAs that reflect your customer base. Never rely
on only one source for bookings.
● Use a booking software that has an API connection with OTAs to
reduce administration time and booking errors.
Travel Trends
Family travel is now modern family travel
47 Roughly one in four people say they will travel solo in 2018. (Solo Travel
Statistics, 2018)
48 Google searches for “solo travel” and “travel alone” were at the highest
they've ever been in January 2018. (Intrepid, 2018)
49 Seventy percent of Abercrombie & Kent’s solo travelers take at least one
overseas trip per year, 70% are female, and half are between the ages of
50 and 60. (Abercrombie & Kent, 2018)
51 New research shows that more than 60% of business trips in the past
year including a leisure portion. (Expedia Media Solutions, 2018)
About 80% of bleisure travelers spend one to five hours on research
52 during both the inspiration and planning phases – a more condensed
amount of time compared to typical leisure booking windows.
(PhocusWire, 2018)
Wellness travel is thriving
53 One in five people plan to take health and wellbeing trips in 2018,
almost double the amount of people compared to 2017. (Booking.com,
2018)
Walking will be the ultimate way to explore next year, with 56% of
travelers saying they want to do walking or hiking trips in 2018. Other
health and wellness inspired activities high on the travel agenda include
visiting a spa or receiving beauty treatments (33%), cycling (24%), water
sport activities (22%), taking a full body detox holiday (17%), going on a
yoga retreat (16%), running (16%) and undertaking
meditation/mindfulness retreats (15%). (Booking.com, 2018)
Key Takeaways:
● Use these trends to build packages for future customers. An
example would be if you offer a family tour rate for 2 adults and 2
children, add a modern family package for 1 adult and 2 children.
● Promote any new packages prominently on your website and on
your social media. This will make you stand out from your
competitors.
Marketing Insights
Travelers put trust in real reviews
56 TrustYou surveyed nearly 1,000 leisure and business travelers who had
traveled in the previous 12 months and had booked their own
accommodation. More than half (54%) had written at least one review
about a hotel where they had stayed during that period, and 93% of
those people said their review was positive. More notably: 80% of
travelers who received a request left a review, whereas only 22% of
travelers wrote a review without being asked. (PhocusWire, 2018)
57 53% of bookers will not commit to booking until they’ve read reviews,
and 80% would read between 6-12 reviews before booking. (TripAdvisor,
2017)
61 A study from BI Intelligence shows that messaging apps have 20% more
monthly active users than social networks. Validating this trend, Statista
projects that messaging apps will hit 2.48 billion users in 2021. (Statista,
2018)
Key Takeaways:
● Always be open to experimenting with new marketing avenues
refine your communication strategy with your target audience.
● Analyse the results of your marketing strategy by paying attention
to your number of website visitors, click-through-rates and
booking conversion rates.
● Keep any emails or social media posts fresh and relevant. You can
ask your guides to post, or share content from resellers too.
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