Travel Industry Report
- UK travel growth unaffected by Brexit
- Online travel sales in Europe slowing to 5.3% year-on-year, 51% lower than last year?s growth
- Interest in cruises at a record high
- Online car rentals declining
LONDON, United Kingdom --- Adobe today reveals its Adobe Digital Index (ADI) 2017 Online Travel Industry Report, projecting continued growth for online travel spend this summer. This is despite uncertainty surrounding the UK?s decision to leave the European Union, a weaker Pound and rising inflation.[1]
Online travel in the UK saw 14% year-on-year growth in the period of January to March 2017, with international and domestic flight reservations made by UK travelers increasing 1.8 times since January 2015. Across the continent, online travel spend for flights and hotels is expected to total nearly ?70 billion this year, with the summer period accounting for ?19bn.
Travel trends
Cruises appear to be the big travel winners this year with visits to cruise websites almost doubling in the last three years. However, car rental companies are not faring as well, with a 14% decrease in rentals recorded year-on-year in Q1.
In terms of the best times to get a good deal on a holiday, the data revealed that the optimum time to book a flight is 36 days beforehand, regardless of whether it?s international or not. Booking slightly sooner, 29 days in advance, helps secure the best price on hotels. January to March is the most popular time to book a cruise.
For Britons, Spain is a top European summer holiday destination, followed by Italy and Ireland. Those heading further afield opted for the US, Morocco or Canada, even though the US is 9.7% more expensive to visit than last year.
Getting social on holiday
Social media is proving an important source for holiday inspiration, with an average of 14 million mentions each month on travel. Hashtags #adventure, #travel and #bucketlist remain popular throughout the summer months. Sustainable travel also performed better than expected on social media in January this year by 46%.
Further social analysis shows that crossing countries off the bucket list and experiencing culture remain the top reasons to travel across the globe, above relaxation. But, looking at data from Adobe Stock, the marketing and creative community still searched and downloaded classic relaxation-related imagery of beaches and nature to inspire people to travel.
Holiday tech
The growing trend of travel companies using new technologies to attract customers is also apparent. Augmented reality and virtual reality (VR) had a 13% year-on-year increase in holiday mentions, and mentions of wearables increased by 44%. This has been supported by the launch of new travel wearables like Princess Cruise?s Ocean Medallion wristband in January this year.
John Watton, Senior Marketing Director EMEA, Adobe commented: ?Holidays are the epitome of experience, but marketers mustn?t assume that the experience begins when a customer boards the plane. It starts from the very first interaction the customer has with their brand. Analysing the underlying trends that motivate customers? travel decisions is a great opportunity for travel businesses to build customer experiences across multiple channels, from mobile and online, VR experiences in the store, to the wearables that customers take on the trip with them. If marketers can create experiences that are inspiring, relevant, and targeted to their audiences across all touchpoints, they?ll be taking their customers on more journeys than one.?
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Adobe Digital Index: Online Travel Industry Report 2017 Methodology
Based on the analysis of aggregated and anonymous data:
? 16+ billion visits to major U.S. travel, airline, hotel, car rentals, cruise and online travel booking sites between ?15 and March ?17
? 9 of 10 largest hotel groups use the Adobe Marketing Cloud (by room numbers, MKG Hospitality Database)
? 7 of 10 largest airlines use the Adobe Marketing Cloud (by revenue and passengers carried)
? 4 of the largest car rentals use the Adobe Marketing Cloud (by revenue)
? 3 of the largest cruise lines use the Adobe Marketing Cloud (by revenue)
? Survey: conducted between February 22-26, 2017 to over 2,000+ US working consumers
? 321M social engagements (mentions, page likes, followers) from Jan. 2016 ? Mar. 2017 via blogs, Facebook, G+, Reddit, Twitter, Dailymotion, Flickr, Instagram, Tumblr, VK, Disqus, Foursquare, Metacafe, Wordpress, and YouTube
? Social mentions are publicly available and based on aggregate total
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