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Travel Trends

Reviews outpacing price in online travel planning: In a recent survey, Yahoo Travel found that 61% of people now go online for vacation recommendations. Travelers no longer just search for a hotel based on price; they are now mainly looking for user reviews, user ratings and photos.
 
New online mapping features at hotels.com : “Interactive mapping capabilities help customers select the right hotel for every trip. Using the new mapping features, travelers can display landmarks and points of interest surrounding their potential hotel (or B&B) choice on an interactive map. They also can drag the map in any direction, view the distance between two selected points, and the estimated driving and walking times between those points.
 
Expedia targets unmanaged business travelers: “Expedia.com recently announced the launch of its new Business Travel resource for unmanaged business travelers—those who book their business travel on their own as opposed to through a corporate travel department or full-service corporate travel management company. Gone are the days of the business travel 'road warrior' having to manage multiple travel points programs in several different places."

 
Ups and downs of European online travel: "eMarketer estimates that online travel sales in the five major travel markets of Europe - France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK - will total nearly $49 billion this year, up 27% over 2006. But an analyst with eMarketer says that over the next four years, as the European online travel market matures, sales growth in the sector will steadily decrease, which means competition for online travel dollars is going to increase.”

Local.com goes travel, powered by Expedia: “Local search engine Local.com announced the addition of extensive online booking capabilities and travel-related content to its Local.com site. Local.com users will now have the ability to book flights, hotels, cruises, rental cars and other travel-related services powered by Expedia. Expedia is the exclusive travel partner to Local.com, and will also provide extensive travel-related content, including thousands of vacation packages, flights, hotels, cruises, car rental and destination services, which will be integrated into Local.com’s search results as part of the second phase of the project expected later this year. In addition, Local.com will offer Expedia’s unmatched hotel-related content, including detailed hotel property descriptions, user ratings, photos and pricing information. Local.com lists over 16 million businesses nationwide, and was recently named the industry’s most relevant local search site by search technology research firm TeleMapics.”

Leisure travel expected to grow despite economic challenges: “The demand for leisure travel continues to grow, but the manner in which Americans vacation continues to change as revealed in the Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell (YPB&R)/Yankelovich Partners 2007 National Leisure Travel Monitor.

“The percentage of adult Americans who have taken at least one overnight trip of more than 75 miles from home continues to rise. According to the 2007 study of the travel habits, preferences and intentions of Americans, fully 95% of American adults took such a trip during the past 12 months (up from 92% last year).

Among the trends unveiled in the 2007 National Leisure Travel Monitor:

• The most popular type of vacation remains “visiting friends and relatives” (56% of leisure travelers), followed by beach or lake vacations (27%), general sightseeing vacations (21%), urban or city vacations (15%), cruise vacations (12%), camping and hiking vacations (12%), and theme park vacations (11%). Less than one in 10 American leisure travelers took a gambling vacation (9%), while only 2% took a golf vacation.
• Short getaways of four nights or less (including a Saturday night stay) remain the most popular vacations and represent over half of all vacations taken by Americans last year.
• One out of four adult leisure travelers is planning to take fewer vacations this year. When asked why, the most frequently cited reasons were an inability to get away from one’s job, projects at home and the strained condition of the household budget.
• The established trend of traveling with a spouse or another adult without children continues to prevail, with six in 10 vacationers reporting having taken at least one such trip last year. Travel with children continues to grow, however, with over three in 10 adults reporting at least one family vacation with children. ”Vacations for One” also continue to grow as the incidence of single-person households continues to rise.
• Cited as “very/extremely influential” when selecting a hotel or resort is a preference for quiet or soundproofed guest rooms, along with noise reduction windows and walls.
• Word of mouth referrals continue to be the most trusted source of information about travel. More than 80% of leisure travelers state they are extremely confident in the recommendations of friends and relatives. But online reviews and blogs are increasingly popular sources of information for consumers: fully four out of ten leisure travelers now report reading online reviews of both suppliers and destinations.
• The majority (66%) of leisure travelers who are airline and hotel users now go exclusively to the Internet when planning a future vacation, while 57% report making reservations online. These numbers underscore how quickly consumers have embraced this new medium since 2000, when only 35% of leisure travelers used the Internet to plan travel and just 18% actually made a reservation online.”

Traveling with friends on the increase: Recent “research out from Halifax Travel Insurance has found that in the past year, nearly 9 million Brits left partners and/or families at home to travel with their mates. Single-sex holidays are growing quickly in popularity. More than two-thirds of Britons are now traveling with groups of friends. While about one in four of these trips are the popular stag or hen weekends, 36% of these trips were for the sole purpose of catching up with friends. Schoolmates, neighborhood pals, sports teams and office getaways are just a few of the groups now traveling together.”

U.S. business travel strengthens significantly: “Major hotel markets throughout the United States continued to witness positive growth in 2006 and are expected to repeat that performance in 2007, thanks to increased corporate travel and a surprisingly strong showing from the upper-end of the hotel market, according to the 2007 U.S. Lodging Report released by Ernst & Young.

“Revenue per available room (RevPAR) was at its peak across all segments of the market in 2000 and has been steadily rising again following a precipitous decline in the aftermath of 9/11. In 2006, the market saw solid gains in two leading indicators of performance - average daily room rate (ADR) and RevPAR - both of which increased by more than 7% over the prior year.

“In fact, luxury hotels enjoyed the highest growth in ADR in 2006 (8.7%) and the segment is expected to be the only area to outperform the overall U.S. hotel market in terms of ADR this year with an 8.1% growth in ADR vs. just 6% for the market as a whole, according to data supplied by Smith Travel Research.”
 
Hotels take pampering to next level on club floors: “In a world where hotel guests increasingly crave pampering, upscale hotel chains are turning club floors into over-the-top retreats. Hotel ‘clubs,’ members-only floors with special perks not available to standard guests, have been used for decades to reward good customers. But now hotel chains are trying to raise the bar to justify higher rates and boost revenue. Ritz-Carlton is adding fireplaces and barista coffee service, Sheraton's installing new computers that let users download music, while Hilton plans more late-night snacks.”

Some examples of what the chains are doing:

• Providing free wireless Internet; computers that allow users to order songs or download photos; cappuccino machines; and large tables to make it easier to work on laptops and hold small meetings.
• Allowing guests to personalize their visit by selecting pillow type, fruit choice, and more.
• Offering a concierge service for guests; pet-walking services; free lunch foods; and use of music-filled iPods.

“By modernizing club floors, giving them some uniformity and aggressively marketing them, hoteliers also hope to appeal to fast-growing niche markets” including women, younger business travelers, and families.
 
UK travelers are sharing experiences online: "One of the reasons UK travelers hit the Internet is to harness the experience of other travelers. Over a fifth of UK Internet users believe Web sites like TripAdvisor that provide reviews by other travelers are the most trusted online sources for reliable travel information.

“eMarketer projects that online leisure and unmanaged business travel sales in the UK will total $21 billion this year, a 27% increase over 2006. But the annual sales growth rate will rapidly decelerate over the next four years, dropping below the teens. More consumers trusted sites with amateur reviews (21%) than professionally written guides (15%), regardless of whether they are online tourist guides, or local information sites.”

Expedia launches new direct connect technology for hotel partners: "Expedia, Inc., today at HITEC 2007 announced the launch of Expedia QuickConnect, a reservation system interface that allows hotel partners to easily and efficiently link property management and central reservation systems to Expedia. Through Expedia QuickConnect, independent hotels and small- to medium-size hotel chain partners can now easily automate the exchange of room, rate and booking information with Expedia, Inc. sites.

"Properties that participate in the BedandBreakfast.com Online Reservations program benefit from this program. Now, every change you make in the BedandBreakfast.com ORM gets made on Expedia.com and hotels.com in real time!"
 
Even “accidental” tourists have appetite for new culinary tour trend: “A growing number of tourists say they are deliberate culinary travelers, but a substantial number of others identify themselves as ‘accidentally’ participating in food and wine activities simply because they are available.
Interest in the culinary travel market continues to grow, as evidenced by data from 2,364 American leisure travelers and co-sponsored by Gourmet magazine, the Travel Industry Association and the International Culinary Tourism Association. A whopping 60% of U.S. leisure travelers say they’re interested in participating in such activities as cooking classes and winery tours, visiting farmer’s markets and attending food and wine festivals while on vacation. Forty-six percent in the survey were deliberate ‘foodie’ travelers, while another 26% were the accidental tourists.

“Why is interest in culinary travel reaching its boiling point? Industry watchers point to two possible reasons. First could be the success of the Food Network and its spread of celebrity chefs. Secondly, as clients travel the world more, they look for different takes on their favorite destinations.

“People learning to cook and their counterparts tend to be younger travelers, falling into the 35 to 54 age bracket; more affluent, spending $1,194 per trip ($425 of which goes to food-related activities); and better educated (44% of those surveyed graduated college or did post-graduate work, according to the report).”
 
Orbitz survey reveals work-life balance trends: “Orbitz announced the results of its second annual ‘Take 5 to Travel’ Survey examining trends in work-life balance and its impact on the vacation habits of Americans. The survey results reveal thought-provoking data that begs various questions about societal workplace trends and vacation behavior.

"Orbitz’ ‘Take 5 to Travel’ survey seems to show a trend toward more balance between the workplace and the American worker’s desire to use a vacation to actually take time out to relax and rejuvenate. Some key findings from the Orbitz ‘Take 5 to Travel’ survey include:

• 35% of those surveyed have taken up to five days of vacation in the past year, a 14% increase from last year. In contrast, however, the number of respondents who took 10-15 days of vacation (17%) or more than 15 days of vacation (27%) in the past year each dropped 8% from last year.
• While slightly less than half of Americans (44%) take two weeks of vacation or more each year, two thirds (65%) have taken at least a full week off in the past year.
• When asked if they are encouraged by their bosses to use their vacation time, 60% of those surveyed agreed, down year-over-year by 5%.
• One in four respondents (25%) felt their boss did not encourage them to vacation.
• Nearly one-third (29%) of those surveyed felt compelled to stay connected when away from work, improving by dropping 4% compared to respondents last year. The number of those who do not check email while on vacation also grew by 4% year-over-year to 64%.
• Young adults age 18-34 are most likely to report checking in with work/work email at least once a day while on vacation (24% compared to 16% overall) while respondents age 55 and over are much more likely to never check in on vacation (76%).
• According to the survey results, Americans that get away say they are usually the happiest when traveling with their families, including children. Fifty-one percent of those surveyed prefer traveling with family, followed by traveling with only their significant other (16%).

Women visit fewer sites to learn what they want: "Over half of US female Internet users ages 25 and older say the Internet is their main research source for checking out potential product purchases, according to Burst Media's 'Online Insight' report, published June 2007.

"The Internet was named far more often than other methods. Around 10% or fewer of respondents said they got their information from "asking family and friends," newspapers and magazines, television or other sources.

"Major online buying categories for women in the past six months included travel (38%), adult clothing (32%) and health and beauty products (27%).
Although women consider the Internet a prime source for product information, they use slightly fewer Web sites on average in their research than men, according to Frank About Women's "Understanding Online Shopping Behavior Topline Summary," published in March 2006. Adult female Internet users typically visited four or more Web sites in the course of doing product research, while men used an average of nearly five."

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