Anticipating 2018 travel trends
Introduction What do you think your potential customers are thinking about right now? Are you on their consideration set for their 2018 holidays? Welcome to our snapshot of travel trends which we ve created using our new proprietary insights methodology, TravelMapper360, powered by Mapper360 TM. We use this to scour thousands of realtime data points from websites such as TripAdvisor and online forums through to individual brands social media platforms. This means we understand immediate consumer travel trends, what people are thinking and talking about now. We can then deliver actionable recommendations about how best to reach your customers, ensuring your budgets are spent wisely for maximum return. We ve looked at what people have been talking about most this year for their next holiday and also what types of holidays they are expressing interest in. We hope you find this snapshot useful. Please do give us a call if you d like us to apply TravelMapper360 to understand what s happening to your customers now. This report has been created by Four Engage, the Insights and Social Campaigns agency within Four, whose data-driven approach to identifying, targeting and connecting with high value audiences delivers exceptional campaigns for global travel, events, retail and finance clients.
What destinations have been trending for the next holiday choice? The USA has nearly three times more mentions for 2018 holidays than other destinations on tripadvisor.co.uk in the last ten months. California (24%) and Hawaii (18%) were the most discussed US destinations, followed by New York (14%) and Las Vegas (14%) Florida (13%) mentions decreased by 24% year-on-year. Europe destinations under discussion for 2018: Dominated by Spain as the most mentioned travel destination within Europe, followed by Italy and France Mexico, Maldives and Thailand are currently key discussion topics for long-haul beach destinations for British holidaymakers. India, Australia and Japan were the top three long haul destinations discussed year-to-date. European beach destinations for 2018: Spain and Greece are likely to be preferred European beach destinations Spain was mentioned three times more than Greece There have been three times more mentions of Menorca this year And Crete is the most mentioned Greek Island Despite shorter lead times for UK bookings Cornwall is already the lead destination being discussed for 2018 staycations Most discussed long haul destinations India Australia Japan Key European destinations Spain Most discussed US destinations 24% Italy France 18% 14% 14% California Hawaii New York Las Vegas Preferred European beach destinations Spain + Greece
Summer holiday 2018 online mentions Summer holiday 2018 online topics Most talked about destinations on Tripadvisor UK in 2017 Trending and fading travel topics on social media in 2017 Source: social listening on discussions around plans for a 2018 summer holiday Source: social listening on discussions around plans for a 2018 summer holiday
Summer holidays 2018 There have been over 3,000 mentions of planning a holiday/trip next summer in the last six months; Football lovers are already discussing visiting Russia for FIFA World Cup 2018: Next holidays discussed on Tripadvisor UK by volume, year to date There was a spike in travel discussions in June driven by qualification Expressions around booking the trip to and trip to Russia around the Irish football team have been more prominent than other football teams There are early signs of customers looking to return to familiar known destinations. Our research found more than 4,000 mentions of going back to a much loved destination in the last 6 months versus. only 1,200 in 2016. This indicates destinations and brands should be focusing heavily on encouraging repeat customers for 2018. Source: social listening on discussions around future trips with a particular focus on Tripadvisor
Older traveller gap breaks on the rise The trend for University students and new graduates to take gap years continues to shift with clearing debt being the top priority for millennials, but pent up demand for students who would still like to travel Our research found a 24% decrease in the volumes of conversations around a gap year among young people from 2014 to today This analysis matches a report soon to be published by Four Travel on the grown up gapper. Watch this space for more news Young people talking about gap years on social media, online mentions Our listening shows large spikes of mentions around being unable to afford taking a university gap year. These spikes can be attributed to the rise of how-to videos for those who cannot afford to take gap years, but want to Instead, longer holidays are seeing an upwards trend among the older, more affluent baby boomer generation; 93.3% of our Backpackers tribe in our TravelMapper360 custom segmentation of UK holiday makers is over 25 Source: social listening on discussions around gap year from students/young adults (all online conversations)
Boomers what are they looking for? 23.1% increase in searches relating to retirement ideas 47.7% increase in searches relating to single travel over 50 Keyword Holidays with teenagers Retirement ideas Single travel over 50 Source: Google AdWords Ave. monthly searches in 2017 2400 2400 1600 1300 1300 This matches research already published by Four Travel which highlights the rise of the 50+ single adventuress. Ave. monthly searches in 2016 880 Eat, love, holiday Why 50+ women are exploring the world independently. June 2017
Beach plus what else are people talking about for 2018? Rise of Instagram All inclusive Following industry predictions of a move to all-inclusive holidays as travellers look for certainty around expenditure, our research found strong levels of searches for allinclusive beach holidays for 2018 Spa and beach Conversations of spa facilities for 2018 together with beach holidays generated 402 recent mentions. 80% of these mentions were promotional posts from resorts and hotels offering spa treatments for free or a discounted rates, with the remaining 20% of posts led by holiday makers expressing an interest in spa treatments on their next beach break in 2018 Yoga and beach There were over 187 mentions of yoga alongside conversations on beach holidays. 75% of these were hotels and beach resorts promoting yoga lessons on their beachfront/ seaside and resorts offering fitness & yoga themed short breaks/long stays. The remaining 25% posts focussed on people planning to do yoga on their next beach holiday Overall, 8% of hotels and travel companies were offering a more holistic travel experience including discounted spa sessions, yoga lessons and adventure Instagram is being used as a live, authentic and highly visual travel guide, with younger audiences using it to discover the latest hotspots from locals Apps such as like to know it, which has featured in publications like Forbes and FastCompany, are taking the social media platform from pure inspiration to immediately actionable, with partners such as Airbnb. VisitScotland has recently launched a pop up Instagram Travel Agency with a floor to ceiling #travelinspo board Travel has become as much about the photos we take as the experiences we enjoy. Alongside UK specific mentions of holiday synonyms, e.g. trip, vacation destination, #photograph generated 18,155 mentions and #photography and #travel 16,719 mentions since January 2017 Source: social listening data on discussions around plans for beach holidays in 2018 (all online conversations)
New and current audiences for 2018 Our new TravelMapper360 service, powered by Mapper360 TM can complement other traditional research models by listening to thousands of people in the digital space, these are people talking, or sharing images and video in an open and honest way demonstrating what they like, what they are interested in and who or what influences them. We can use this research to identify tribes of audiences and then drill down into what motivates them. It means our clients budgets can be focused on the right audiences and the right messaging saving marketing money and increasing conversion. This then identified a series of interests and personas who could be identified and targeted as potential travellers to the USA from young music fans to male sports fans. We use the insight created to understand what messages, images and tone of voice will directly address target tribes. This informs our integrated communications campaigns across advertising, social and PR and helps us to understand which brands to work with, which influencers genuinely influence your customers. This means highly actionable insights so you can put your marketing expenditure where it really makes a difference. We can evaluate the customers of any brand or platform your own, your competitors, or key partners. For British Airways, we analysed their 966,000 Twitter followers. An example TravelMapper360 audience analysis We analysed this audience and identified 14 distinct tribes segmented according to psychographics, behaviours, and preferences. The segments identified range from Family First to South Asia.
We hope you find our concise insight report useful. What do you think your potential customers are thinking about right now? Are you on their consideration set for their 2018 holidays? If you would like to hear more about how these trends might impact your business and what s next for your customers, please get in touch. The Four Travel Trends Report has been developed using Four s unique methodology, TravelMapper360. Fourcommunications.com info@fourcommunications.com @fourcomms @fourengage @fourtravelnews
For further information please contact us on 0203 697 4200 Debbie Hindle Managing director, Four Travel debbie.hindle@fourcommunications.com Rob Wilson Head sales and marketing travel and tourism, Four Travel rob.wilson@fourcommunications.com Kath Ludlow Managing director, Four Engage kath.ludlow@fourcommunications.com