Millennial Travelers

KEY FINDINGS FOR TRAVEL BRANDS & MARKETERS:

Crowdtap Study Reveals Millennial Travelers Seeking Most Authentic Experiences Turn to UGC for Booking Decisions.  Crowdtap today released a new study exploring how modern day travelers plan, experience and share their adventures. This report highlights key tactics for brands and marketers to connect with consumers throughout their travel purchase, on-site experiences and post-travel conversations.

While the study reveals the reality of the demise of transactional tourism, it provides unique opportunities to engage with consumers through user-generated content. Today’s wanderlust seekers are taking to social media for peer-to-peer advice, travel review sites for real anecdotes and in-person conversations to consult on travel experiences.

Planning & discovery: User-generated content and word-of-mouth marketing is king, consumers look to peer-to-peer influence on social and blogs for travel advice

• 40% of people planning a trip ignore tourism ads.
• 65% of people polled find their place of travel through friends and family via Facebook.
• 75% of millennials (ages 18-34) look to reviews, blog posts, status updates and in-person conversations from real people to make travel decisions more than travel advertisements.
• Travelers are also seeking loyalty perks and exclusive deals to help guide their vacation plans with 62% deciding where to go based on points.

Travel: Travelers want a true-to-life cultural experience

• 63% of those polled turn to WOM recommendations from people who’ve visited the destination previously.
• Travelers prefer to explore local sites independently versus relying on ride-sharing apps with most renting cars (39%) or walking/biking around (22%).
• 65% of people want adventurous outdoor activities, 63% seek local shopping and 60% hunt for renowned food.

Rate & recommend: Encourage guests to share their experiences with both your brand and their peers via UGC

• More than 70% of travelers share photos to Facebook and Instagram, while about 60%  will post stories and statuses about their travels.
• 45% of travellers share reviews of their experiences with more than 10 percent post photos to sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp.
• In-person storytelling also ranks high with 55% of travelers sharing photos and stories in-person with friends and family.

“With holiday travel on the horizon, travel brands and marketers need to keep their ears to the streets, or in this case, the web, to best engage today’s travelers,” says Peter Storck, SVP of research and analytics at Crowdtap. “Our research shows now, more than ever, consumers are relying on UGC and word-of-mouth to ensure their travel experiences are successful, reliable and authentic. Brands and marketers should take the time to truly understand the conversations happening across social and blogs to implement the most influential campaigns.”

Crowdtap’s full “Curating an Authentic Travel Experience to Build Brand Loyalty” report can be found here. Crowdtap’s study polled over 505 U.S. adults* who were asked to share their traveling experiences and behaviors through the booking to sharing journey. The study was fielded within Crowdtap’s member community and utilized the platform’s agile research tools.  *Crowdtap fielded this research in October 2016. Respondents reflected a 50-50 male-female split, with an average age of 30.

Source:  http://www.travelindustrywire.com/article92107.html  22 Nov 2016

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