The leisure travel consumer ecosystem is changing
- Spaniards spend less time thinking about and planning their trips than last year and more time booking, enjoying and sharing on social networks.
- More than 56% of Spaniards book their trips through an agency, either online (35%) or in person (21%).
- Big data and mobile channels, opportunities for travel industry suppliers.
Madrid, April 19, 2017-. The ease of access to content and the increasingly common use of technology has changed the time Spaniards dedicate to each of the phases of the leisure travel consumption ecosystem. According to data from the Brain Trust CS Tourism Barometer, the dreaming (dreaming the trip) and planning (planning it) phases lose some weight to thebooking (booking), experiencing (enjoying the trip) and sharing (sharing it) phases, the latter being the phase in which the time spent by Spaniards has increased the most.
Of the total time Spaniards spend on leisure travel, 35.9% is spent thinking about and planning the trip, 10.1% on booking it and 45% on enjoying it. The remaining 9% is dedicated to sharing travel experiences through different channels, which is almost 2 points more than in the previous year.
This tendency to spend more time on enjoyment than on planning, searching or booking, involves suppliers to apply changes in their own nature. According to Ángel García Butragueño, director of the Tourism Barometer and head of the Tourism and Leisure division of Brain Trust CS "Consumers demand more information, more speed, personalization and multi-channeling in relation to their leisure travel. They value their time more and more, so they are looking for suppliers where they can develop all phases of the travel consumption ecosystem the way they want. To do this, suppliers must not only be able to cover all phases, but also take advantage of the knowledge they have of their customers through big data techniques to offer them what they want, when they want it and through the channel they prefer.
Dreaming: Destiny is the key
According to the Barometer data, for 71% of Spanish consumers, interest in knowing a place is the key when considering a trip, followed by recommendations from friends and family (43%) and information found on the Internet (35%). It is remarkable how little influence the receipt of information or advertising by email has at this stage, only mentioned as a reason by 6%.
Planning: Recommendations make the decision
When planning a trip, more than half of Spaniards use recommendations from friends or relatives as a source of information. In fact, they are the most used source of information with 54%, followed by destination websites (39%) and opinion websites (33%).
Despite this, when asked in the Barometer about the main source of information, 14% of Spaniards stated that they used online agency websites, which are in third position after recommendations and destination websites. In the case of face-to-face agencies, despite the fact that only 16% use them as a source of information, of these, half consider them to be their main source. "We can conclude that travelers who rely on face-to-face agencies are more loyal to them for the different phases of the leisure travel ecosystem than other consumers," says Butragueño.
It is noteworthy that, at this stage, the purpose of travelers' use of review websites is not only to consult possible plans at the destination, but also to select the hotel where they are going to stay (mentioned by 59% of travelers).
Booking: reservations are made online
Online channels continue to be the most used when booking travel, with company websites, used by 36% of Spaniards, being the main channel. Even so, more than 56% of Spaniards book through an agency, either online (35%) or in person (21%).
Experiencing: The cell phone as an ally
According to data from the Barometer, 85% of travelers use their cell phones at their destination, 5 points more than last year. Taking photos (78%), looking at maps (67%) and searching for addresses of interest (63%) are the activities most frequently carried out with them, although other actions such as consulting opinion websites (18%) or searching for restaurants or places to visit are also on the rise.
More than three quarters of Spanish travelers connect abroad to the Internet through wifi in hotels, restaurants, etc. and 71% would find it very or quite interesting to receive offers to go to restaurants, events, etc. once they are in the destination. "Keeping in touch with consumers during their trips by offering them information of interest to them can be a very interesting option for growth and loyalty for travel providers," says the director of the Barometer.
Sharing: Increasingly on the rise
More than half of Spaniards share their travel experiences on social networks such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter (52%) while 33% (7 points more than the previous year) share their opinions with other travelers through review platforms and websites such as Trivago or Tripadvisor.
Users are increasingly accustomed to sharing their opinions online. It is noteworthy that the consumers who do so most are those with high incomes and those between 25 and 34 years of age.
"Knowing the customer, knowing their needs, identifying their habits and behaviors, and offering a unique, personalized and differential value proposition are the keys to distribution in an era in which easy access to content, the immediacy with which it is obtained, and the breadth of supply lead users to "do it yourself". Intermediation faces some major, but manageable, challenges if the focus is on the customer rather than the product. The Customer Experience will be what makes the difference in the future, for which tourism companies must undertake cultural, organizational, process and business model changes if they want to continue contributing to the value chain," says Angel García Butragueño.
