Tailoring your marketing to target specific demographics was just one of the major focuses of this year’s 2022 World Travel Market (WTM) event in London.
But regardless of which pool you are fishing in, another trend was clear - travellers need reassurance, free re-booking, clarity on entry requirements to every country they visit, and someone to talk to if anything should go awry along the way.
What consumers want
At WTM London, GWI, a consumer research company, shared the results of its latest consumer study conducted in Q3 of 2022.
*The overwhelming majority (50%) of Baby Boomers want free cancellation or the ability to rebook when they book a trip.
*This was also the most important factor for Gen Z (40%), Millennials (35%) and Gen X (38%).
(Baby Boomers’ age range is 58 to 72 years and they pre-date Gen X who are born between 1969 and 1984. Millennials are those born in the mid-80s, before Gen Z in the late 1990s and early 2000s.)
*Safety for solo travellers was higher on the list of factors that was taken into consideration among Gen Z (35%) than it was for Baby Boomers (20%). Clear entry requirements were wanted by around 35% of travellers, no matter their age group.
*Around 32% of travellers in the study said they would give consideration to COVID-19 requirements before travelling. Just 28% said case numbers in the destination/s of choice would be important if they were booking a trip tomorrow.
*Good insurance was more important than contactless travel across every age category, while it was mostly Millennials and Gen Z (16% of both groups) who wanted to pay for their trip in instalments. By comparison, just 12% of Baby Boomers said they wanted the ability to pay off a holiday.
What this research continues to drive home is that reassurance is key, no matter your customers’ age!
Travel experiences that excite
Sky vacations, dream trips, taking risks, summer escapes, food tours, meeting amazing businesses, adventure and making new friends were some of the buzzwords used in discussing future experiences that excited travellers.
But approximately 60% of the world’s population has never travelled before. Imagine if you could convince just 1% more to travel with you? There is an opportunity for us all.
Market to the right audience
Current research shows that travellers are looking for reliable and easy travel, from the booking process down to the actual travelling.
We must make sure that we target these future customers correctly. Other key take-home points for marketers from this year’s WTM London showcase were:
*Travel is important to every generation;
*Genzetters (Generation Z) is a new buzzword to describe a market with huge potential – market to them!
*Genzetters don’t plan very far ahead; they live for the now and travel is an outlet;
*Baby boomers and Gen-X are going to become even more important. Think about them booking family travel in 10 years and update your marketing accordingly;
*Generation Alpha is the next demographic we need to pay attention to. These are individuals born after 2010;
*Gen Alpha has a short attention span. If you don’t grab their attention in 10 seconds, you get nothing. They also prefer visual communication methods, so marketing on TikTok and Instagram can be very successful;
*Try to make your marketing material short and snappy; and
*Always be real (for an example of ‘real’ content, check out Ryanair’s TikTok videos!).
Now more than ever, it is important to identify exactly whom you want to reach and what matters to them when it comes to planning or booking a trip. There is enormous growth potential if we get it right.
