Consumer study highlights missed opportunities for travel marketing
While consumers are re-prioritizing travel, less than 20% are influenced by marketing campaigns to book
The 2023 Persado Consumer Travel Survey asked consumers about the factors that motivated their choice of destination for their most recent trip. The study found that social media influencers, email promotions and sponsored social media posts collectively influence only 19% of consumer destination decisions, underscoring the opportunities for specialists in marketing better understand the motivations of consumers.
Persado, the Motivation Artificial Intelligence (AI) company that generates personalized communications at scale, today released a study into the travel habits of today’s consumers, identifying how often consumers travel, what motivates them to book travel, and the considerations they make when doing so. According to the study, consumer debt affects travel plans: 34% of consumers limit their travel frequency due to debt and 25% opt for less expensive trips; however, people still prioritize travel. In fact, 75% plan to take the same or more vacations in 2023 than in 2022.
The Persado Consumer Travel Study 2023 report is available today. The report summarizes the findings of a survey of 600 US adults ages 18 to 56, administered in late March by data and analytics firm Momentive, and reveals that while people still book travel, motivating them to make travel decisions through digital marketing is a challenge.
Key findings include:
Consumers plan to travel as much (or more) in 2023 as they did in 2022: Despite the continued woes in the economy, consumers continue to prioritize travel in their budgets. On average, each person surveyed took nearly 4 trips over 120 miles in 2022 and planned the same or more for this year.
Word of mouth, familiarity trumps marketing efforts: A total of 84% of respondents chose their last travel destination due to personal ties: 25% were invited by family/friends, 23% traveled to visit to close friends/family, 21% visited a repeat destination, and 15% were recommended by a trusted person. Only 19% were influenced by campaigns driven by digital marketing (social media influencers, email promotions, sponsored social media posts).
Escape from the routine is what most motivates them to travel: The vast majority of people travel for a reason intrinsically linked to emotion: 34% do it to escape their daily routines, 25% to reconnect with loved ones and 25% for travel with friends.
Personal debt isn’t stopping travelers: While 50% of people aged 41-56 (Gen X) said cost is the biggest barrier preventing them from traveling now, they were more than twice as likely as people from 18 to 24 years old (Generation Z). ) to carry a credit card balance after your statement after paying for a trip.
“Most travel and hospitality brands invest significantly in personalizing their digital booking experience, but neglect their checkout page, a critical component of the booking process,” said Alex Olesen, vice president of vertical strategy and product marketing at Persado. . “There is tremendous opportunity to use cutting-edge AI technology to understand customers’ individual emotional drivers and create language that has been shown to excite them to book and increase customer lifetime value.”
Using generative AI to talk to travelers and increase bookings
Major airlines, hotels and booking agencies trust Persado to improve customer connections by generating emotionally aware marketing language that motivates action. Just launched, Persado Dynamic Motivation uses a brand’s automatically anonymized web session data, combined with Persado’s extensive knowledge base of business marketing language and automated decision making, to dynamically deliver the best words and phrases. that motivate each client to act. By leveraging generative AI to create original brand-related words and phrases and personalize the online booking process, Persado Dynamic Motivation helps brands motivate guests to book their next adventure and upgrade,
