Tourism Barometer Brain Trust CS
- Italy, Portugal and the UK will be the favourite destinations for millennials, while 13% will choose major trips outside Europe. 13% will choose major trips outside Europe
- 72% of over-45s will opt for a domestic destination
- Andalusians, Madrileños and Basques opt for Spanish beaches, while Catalans and Balearic Islanders opt for more distant destinations.
- Package tours are increasingly relegated to older people, with young people booking individual services and building their own trips.
According to the fifth wave of the II Brain Trust CS Tourism Barometer, Spaniards have already decided the destinations they are most interested in for their trips in 2017. This selection shows clear differences between older travellers, who mainly opt for domestic destinations, whether on the coast, islands or inland, and millennials, who are clear that this year they want to travel outside our borders.
Over 45s will opt for domestic tourism
72% of Spaniards over the age of 45 will limit their trips this year to domestic tourism, both on the coast, islands and inland, while only 20% will choose Europe as a destination and 9% will opt to visit other continents. Among the latter, there is a growing interest among these travellers in visiting China, which will be the destination of choice for 40% of those who opt for the Asian continent.
The Spanish coasts will be most visited by travellers aged between 25 and 44, who will mainly choose family tourism in 35% of cases.
European coasts and big trips, favourite destinations for 18-25 year olds
Italy, with 36% and Portugal with 27% will be the main coastal destinations for under 25s according to the II Brain Trust CS Barometer, followed by Croatia with 18%. In terms of domestic tourism, the United Kingdom, with 23%, is the European country that young people most want to visit in 2017.
India and Thailand in Asia and North Africa will be the destinations of choice for millennials for their big trips in 2017.
Andalusians, Madrileños and Basques will choose beach tourism while Catalans and Balearics prefer to go outside our borders.
By region, there are also big differences. The Andalusians with 41%, the Madrileños with 35%, and the Basques with 34% will travel the most to the Spanish coast, while the Catalans and Balearics will select more distant destinations with 25% and 24% respectively to European destinations, and 15% and 20% to long-distance destinations.
In terms of the products they are going to buy, there are also big differences by age, with older people being more likely to buy package tours (40%), while young people only buy 26%, and 71% opt to buy individual services to build their own trips.
According to Ángel García Butragueño, Director of the Barometer and Director of Tourism and Leisure Consultancy at Brain Trust Consulting Services, these preferences of travellers are marked by different factors on which the industry must focus:
"The choice of destination is no longer primarily determined by price, even among the youngest and least well-off groups.
Destination is now a much more aspirational factor than it has ever been.
First the purpose of the trip is sought, and then the recommendation of other travellers, both known and unknown, and the travel experience itself, which is what moves the new traveller to choose their destination and define their trip.
In fact, the fifth wave of the II Brain Trust CS Tourism Barometer shows that only 44% of Spanish travellers decide their destination first, while 45% say that they first choose the dates and then think about the destination, inspired by the available proposals, and 11% look for offers first, and then decide on the destination and dates based on them.
Therefore, developing a good customer experience from start to finish, in the inspiration, planning, booking, enjoyment and sharing phases, is fundamental for all tourism providers, and especially for travel agencies, which should encourage the involvement of travellers themselves in travel communication, and work on differentiation to become the best option for travel in 2017, some as end providers, others as intermediaries, and position themselves as the trend setters this year.
About Brain Trust Consulting Services and Ángel García Butragueño
Brain Trust Consulting Services is a Spanish multinational company with offices in Madrid, Mexico, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo and Santiago de Chile, and a team of more than 100 professionals. Its staff of qualified consultants is dedicated to offering high added value business solutions and to the permanent search for differentiation, which has led Brain Trust CS to successfully develop new analysis methodologies and innovative solutions in areas such as business strategy, operations improvement, product and channel marketing, advanced customer management (customer intelligence and big data), competitive intelligence, customer experience and digital transformation.
The company has clients of very different sizes and sectors such as: Tourism, Telecommunications, Banking and Payment Methods, Insurance, Energy, Distribution and the Legal sector. Within the tourism industry, Brain Trust CS works for most of the leading travel agencies in Spain, major airlines, hotel chains and car rental companies, as well as technology companies specialised in this industry.
Since 2009, Ángel García Butragueño has been responsible for the Tourism and Leisure division and Member of the Advisory Board of Brain Trust CS with the aim of contributing to the development, growth and diversification of the firm and, through his work and thanks to his more than 30 years of experience, to promote innovation, competitiveness and profitability of companies and institutions in the tourism sector.