eNews

Young adults around the world are craving real-world experiences and travel ranks highly.

People around the world missed out on personal experiences and opportunities to see friends and family over the last two years due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Many young people during this time were forced to grow up or come of age while many parts of the world were shut down, leading to lost experiences at a formative age in their social and emotional development. Travel can be key to this development, helping young people understand cultural differences, try new things, think more empathetically, and adapt to changing situations.

This relationship with travel goes both ways and younger generations represent an important segment to travel brands. Young travelers will form their attitudes towards travel over the next few years and it is incredibly important for marketers to get to know and keep in step with the trends that will shape and mold the travel and tourism sector.

A new travel report from YouGov sets out to understand perspectives on travel—and life—from 18- to –24-year-olds around the world (we refer to this age group as Global Gen Z throughout). Below are a few key insights into what makes the under-24 travel market vital to travel’s own future.

A desire for physical experiences after coming of age in a pandemic

After more than two years of pandemic life with major disruptions to their financial situations, education, and social lives, Global Gen Z are eager for real-world activities and experiences.

Reconnecting with the people they love is one of the top activities Global Gen Z hopes to do more of in the next 12 months. There’s also pent-up excitement to return to physical stores, in-person events, and vacations either at home or abroad. 

Gen Z will shape our next normal and their excitement to do so is especially encouraging for the travel industry. As the world continues to open up to travelers again, brands have a chance to build on the moments that Gen Z has missed out on or ones that they have yet to experience for the first time.

Gen Z leads the way in intent to spend more on travel this year

We measured the categories that people across 17 markets intend to spend more on this year compared to last year to get a fuller understanding of if two years of travel restrictions have affected the desire to return to travel.

When it comes to the areas Gen Z will spend more on, the top two categories are clothes/accessories (32% globally) and eating out (27%). This is no surprise as our data reveals socializing plays a big role in young people’s lives.

What is notable among younger generations is that they will be prioritizing travel in their spending mix. More than a quarter of the world’s Gen Z population intends to spend more on travel in the next 12 months (26%).

Furthermore, when we look at how travel spending among Gen Z compares to other age groups, Gen Z leads the way. A fifth of global adults intend to spend more on travel products and services in the next 12 months (21%) compared to the previous year, rising to just over one in four amongst Gen Zs (26%) with millennials following closely (25%).

How does travel demand from younger generations of Americans and Canadians compare to other markets? Download the full YouGov report to see how travel desire varies across the globe.

Gen Z ripe for repeat travel and building loyalty

People have different motivations for revisiting places they’ve traveled to before. Whether it’s because it’s a place they know and love or whether it’s to see family and friends again—something 26% of Gen Z listed as their favorite type of travel—it’s important to understand why people travel, especially young people trying to make up for lost time.

Psychographic data from YouGov’s new report reveals that Gen Z travelers are more likely to revisit familiar destinations, with 40% agreeing they usually go back to the same places on vacation—the highest of any other age group.

This finding coupled with the idea that Gen Z travelers seek out experiences for social media content (43%) can help brands fine-tune their content and messaging to draw these travelers back to places of comfort and familiarity.

For more data on the most fluid and digitally-engaged generation, get YouGov’s full Gen Z travel report. Inside the report, travel brands and marketers can learn more about:

• Gen Z’s attitudes towards life in general and the issues that matter most to them
• Domestic and international travel intention among Gen Z in 25 markets
• Their preferred accommodation types—from hotels to rented apartments—while traveling
• What experiences they want from their next trip
• Which channels to engage with and reach Gen Z
• Their views on luxury and sustainable travel
• Young travelers’ interest in travel and the metaverse

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT NOW.

Near’s Tourism Dashboard and Origin Market Length of Stay datasets help drive growth and marketing alignment to enable strategic business decisions.

PASADENA, CA—JUNE 30, 2022— As travel rebounds to pre-pandemic levels, Near,  a global SaaS leader in privacy-led data intelligence on people, places, and products, is working with Greater Palm Springs to provide insights into where both its domestic and international travelers are coming from to help it understand its business better, make smarter resource decisions, and to better leverage the recovery in tourism in the wake of COVID-19. To assist in this effort, Near is providing Greater Palm Springs its Tourism Dashboard and Origin Market Length of Stay datasets, which are created specifically for analyzing the tourism market, both internally for the company, as well as for sharing with its industry partners. 

Greater Palm Springs attracts over 14 million visitors annually, with 6.4 million of those visitors staying overnight. One in four jobs in the area is in the hospitality industry, and the overall economic impact of tourism for the region is $7.5 billion. With the pandemic, the region saw direct spending reduced by $3.4 billion, a 54% drop. To navigate this tremendous shift, the team needed insights and data on where visitors were coming from and what they were doing while visiting to adapt their strategy. By identifying the most common countries of origin for international travelers, Greater Palm Springs knew where to better allocate its resources to draw more tourists and help compensate for events canceled due to the pandemic. This helped lead to full occupancy by summer 2021. As travel continues to rebound to pre-pandemic levels, The Near data is also helping to track visitor/traveler consumer behavior to understand where visitors are dining, shopping, and the attractions they are visiting.

Read the Case Study Here: How Greater Palm Springs used Near’s data to understand visitor origins and visitation patterns

“Our partnership with Near has provided our organization with quality data to validate strategy and resource allocation along with gaining new insights into visitor profiles, originating source markets, and their movements within the destination. Since the data is consistently updated and customizable, we are finding new ways to incorporate the data in real-time along with educating our local hospitality businesses to better support their internal programming. Everyone at Near has always been responsive and easy to work with while also accommodating all our requests,” said Gary Orfield, Director of Tourism Development, at Greater Palm Springs.

The data from Near helped the team collaborate with the airline network planners on routes, which was especially useful in responding to the changes during the pandemic. The data helped inform and validate recommendations for building new airline routes or extending routes for certain seasons. Thanks in part to these recommendations, Palm Springs International Airport has set ten monthly records since June 2022.

Greater Palm Springs was also able to gather intelligence from regional airports like LAX, San Diego, Orange County, and Ontario to understand where visitors were coming from in terms of the U.S. point of entry, and where they were going once they left the airport. This resulted in a better understanding of international markets and led to increased growth during the summer months. With this and the strategic allocation of resources, Greater Palm Springs was able to attract greater-than-usual numbers of leisure travelers, which made up for a reduction in convention business, which historically had made up 40% of visitors and business. Greater Palm Springs has seen leisure occupancy growth during the summer outpace peak season with a 17.2% increase in the past decade (versus 13.3% for January – May). The Average Daily Rate (ADR) for leisure guests in the summer months has also grown by 34.7% in this same period.

“Near is empowering Greater Palm Springs with the data and insights it needs to make strategic business decisions that will help increase its ROI and the overall tourist experience,” said Anil Mathews, Founder, and CEO at Near. “Near is the gold standard in the tourism industry and we are delighted to empower destination marketing organizations (DMOs) of all sizes as well as cities and states around the world with our people and places data to make them more competitive”

Through their partnership with Near, Greater Palm Springs has been able to use data to validate strategy and decisions in many ways.  While the overall ROI contributed directly through their work with Near is challenging to measure, the data helped the team:

Make a case for developing new routes and expanding existing services for flights to Palms Springs International Airport, which reached record numbers of monthly passengers starting in June 2021.

About Greater Palm Springs 

Visit Greater Palm Springs is the official tourism marketing agency for the Coachella Valley. Founded in May 1989 by a Joint Powers Authority comprising the cities of Palm Springs, Desert Hot Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, La Quinta, and Indio, Visit Greater Palm Springs was created as a public-private partnership to help grow the region’s tourism economy. The mission of Visit Greater Palm Springs is to positively affect the destination’s tourism economy and quality of life for its citizens, serving more than 5000 GPSTBID partners and providing sales, marketing, and public relations support targeting potential leisure travelers from around the world as well as event, meeting and convention groups. Learn more here: https://www.visitgreaterpalmsprings.com/

About Near

Near, a global SaaS leader in privacy-led data intelligence curates one of the world’s largest sources of intelligence on people, places, and products. Near processes data from over 1.6 billion unique user IDs, in over 70 million places across 44 countries to empower marketing and operational data leaders to confidently reach, understand, and market to consumers and optimize their business results. With offices in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, Paris, Bangalore, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo, Near serves major enterprises in retail, real estate, restaurants, tourism, technology, marketing, and other industries. For more information, please visit https://near.com

Media Contact:

Kat Harwood
Director, Corporate Communications
[email protected]

Congratulations to Tom Van Hyning! 

Tom is the recipient of the Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA) Distinguished Researcher Award for his significant contributions to tourism research. 

A Distinguished Researcher is one who is recognized by their peers as a valuable resource in the tourism research community and who has provided outstanding service to the field. The recipient is recognized by not only general overviews of contributions during their career but also recognized by specific examples of what they have done to advance tourism research, the people in it, and how they have worked to ensure that the tourism research community continues to flourish.

Congratulations to Dr. Marion Joppe! 

Dr. Joppe is the recipient of the Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA) Lifetime Achievement Award for her significant contributions to tourism research. 

The Lifetime Achievement Award is the highest honor given by the Travel and Tourism Research Association. This award is presented to the individual or organization that has made a highly significant contribution to TTRA as well as to the travel and tourism industry. The award is based on significant, long-term contributions to the industry and/or TTRA.

By: Karen Steele, SVP Marketing at Near

Initially, continued rising gas prices might’ve had some rural tourism boards worried about how their communities could be affected. With the national average at just over $4.13 a gallon, and at just over $4.55 a gallon in the state of Arizona, it’s easy to see why, too. Yet, travelers are showing no signs of slowing down their pent-up travel bug anytime soon. According to Longwoods International tracking study of American travelers, more than 90% of Americans have trips planned in the next six months.

Pinal County, spotted with both mountains and low valleys is a small county with a population of just under 450,000 and is tucked between Maricopa County and Pima County, Arizona’s two most populous counties. Pinal County is just an hour’s drive from the state’s capital, Phoenix, and is known for being a “convenient escape from the hustle and bustle,” according to the data, Pinal County is living up to everything it says it delivers.

“We just got our travel industry impact dashboard for 2020, and we were pleasantly surprised that Pinal County wasn’t hit as badly as other surrounding counties during the pandemic. We had a 31% dip, whereas Maricopa County, which is Phoenix, and then Pima County, had about a 50% dip in travelers from the pandemic,” said Courtney Gulley, Economic Development Coordinator at Pinal County. “Pinal has wide-open spaces and lots of fun activities like off-roading, and you don’t have to worry as much about social distancing.”

People flocking to wide-open spaces, especially those from over populous cities was somewhat of a trend during the pandemic. With the small impact in decreased travelers to Pinal County during the pandemic, Gulley said she was both relieved and shocked to see that travelers didn’t have any plans to cancel their road trips due to the significant increase in gas prices, another challenge she thought would have affected tourism to her community like the pandemic but did not. “I was shocked to read that road trips this spring actually outpaced pre-pandemic levels, but I get it because there’s a lot of pent-up demand,” Gulley said.

Pinal luckily proves to be a popular destination, despite challenges that could’ve impacted it, yet Gulley had a desire to better understand who Pinal’s typical traveler profile actually was. Tourism for Pinal County is still a new sector for the area, as it’s only had a tourism board for the past two years. “We were struggling to find out who our visitor was, and we just didn’t have a lot of data on who our travelers were, where they were coming from, and what they did once they arrived, so we took on Near to empower ourselves with the data intelligence we wanted,” said Gulley.

Data delivers growth and innovation

Using human movement data, collected through smartphones, to identify who Pinal County’s true traveler really was, and where they were coming from was the secret sauce the tourism board used to empower itself with the actionable intelligence it needed to decide where to distribute its resources best, where their top markets were, and also find out where to best place billboards and run ads. With the blend of marketing and operational intelligence, human movement data resulted in Pinal County more concretely understanding who their top tourists were, and to better target them, which ultimately increased visits.

Pinal County also found pertinent information like where its top visitors came from, outside the state, like California, Texas, and Minnesota; this allowed them to understand where ads needed to run. The data also helped to identify the most ideal time of year these travelers came to the county. Also having the data that told Pinal what travelers wanted to do when they actually arrived, allowed Pinal County to not only target their most important travelers on its site and ads but also allowed them to improve their traveler’s trips– knowing where travelers were going allowed the county to advise future travelers best on the most popular locations– all in efforts to make the best overall traveler experience possible.

Leveraging the power of data intelligence to make strategic decisions

The value that data intelligence delivers to tourism boards and businesses that need it offers a wealth of insights on people, places, and products that also inform trends in human behavior in regard to where people are traveling, dining, shopping, as well as the attractions tourists are visiting– serving as paramount information for all tourism boards. Pinal County wasn’t the only rural county that experienced success during tough times in Arizona. Cochise County, another tourism destination in Arizona also leveraged data intelligence to understand who their travelers were, and how best to continue attracting them, both during, and after the pandemic, to today’s high gas prices.

Cochise County Tourism and Economic Council, or CCTEC, is made up of several towns offering hiking, biking, and bird watching among many other outdoor activities. Like Pinal, the county offers wide-open spaces, and a chance to get away from the hustle and bustle. Yet also being a drive destination like Pinal County with no local airport, Cochise also wondered how rising gas prices might at first affect it.

“Many travelers don’t know that we are here and aren’t aware of all the things we have to offer. We have been using data for more targeted promotions, and now tourists are starting to notice us,” said Kate Cox, Marketing Coordinator at Cochise County Tourism and Economic Council. “Just a couple of weeks ago we had a huge road cycling event that brought in over 1,000 people from 36 different U.S. states, from four different countries. People were leaving delighted with a newly discovered area; a lot of people said they can’t wait to come back and maybe even retire here.”

CCTEC leverages its data by using a 20 point of interest (POI) analysis so it can identify the demographics of everyone going to each specific POI, where they go from one POI to another, how much time they spend there, and whether or not they’re overnighting or simply just day visitors. The data also distinguishes local in-state travelers, from domestic and international visitors. The tourism board used data on its POIs to validate that the money it was putting into advertising was actually working and was getting more people to visit.

“Proving that the money I am putting into advertising is actually doing something, watching our numbers grow, and actually seeing what demographic was being hit with each ad allowed me to prove to my communities that our investments are valid,” said Cox.

The businesses with the most data win

Investing in streaming TV ads that show off a county’s beauty, and the reasons to visit is an expensive investment for any tourism board to make. Human movement data and the POIs analyzed allow businesses the opportunity to allocate resources correctly, such as advertisements. For example, CCTEC was ultimately able to use the data from its 20 POIs to find out it needed to run ads in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Dallas. In addition, the data also allowed for on-point digital remarketing efforts, so that any visitor to CCTEC’s site, for example, would be targeted with an ad.

The confidence data insights deliver tourism boards, and truly all enterprises in general, allows business decision-makers to make the right strategic and actionable moves. This power of combining human movement and audience data for actionable insights to market potential visitors is something Near uniquely provides the capability for enterprises to do in real-time. Businesses that have a solid understanding of who their visitors are allowed to know where to put their money or validate what it’s doing. This also helps to deliver the most ROI in ad investments, hence, more travelers. Pinal County and CCTEC are two tourism boards that are doing it right, using the data, and making their visitors have the best possible time– during any challenging time is what counts.

The Travel and Tourism Research Association Awards Program was developed to encourage and recognize excellence in the field of travel and tourism research and marketing. Entrants are judged on quality, originality, creativity, usefulness, results, and benefits to the travel and tourism industry.

Award Submissions are being accepted through April 8, 2022. 

Submissions can be made through the award submission site HERE.

Awards will be announced at the 2022 TTRA International Conference in Victoria on June 16. Winners will be notified by May 16, 2022.

2022 Award Chair: Dr. Carla Barbieri, North Carolina State University, [email protected]

2022 AWARD OPPORTUNITIES:

Award opportunities for the 2022 TTRA International Conference include:

J. DESMOND SLATTERY AWARD (Academic Award)

Awarded to a master or doctoral student to assist with the completion of their thesis or dissertation.

Requirements: All master or doctoral students enrolled in a degree-granting program are eligible to submit a three-page abstract of their proposed research. The abstract must be in English, between 1,000-1,500 words, and must clearly describe the rationale, purpose, and methods of the study in a proposal format. Previous entries for this award are excluded and any entry for this award may not be submitted for any other TTRA award.

Criteria: The papers will be judged by a review committee that will examine the quality of the proposed research in terms of overall writing, relationship to travel and tourism, and its potential scholarly and practical contribution.

Award: The 2022 winning student will receive a $4,000 cash award, a plaque, and a complimentary registration to the International Conference.

---

DK SHIFFLET AWARD FOR RESEARCH EXCELLENCE (Practitioner Award)

Requirements: The DK Shifflet Award for Research Excellence recognizes a practitioner or their DMO for research that resulted or contributed to key decisions or actions for their organization and/or its constituents.

Criteria: The recipient must be a tourism practitioner or DMO in good standing in the travel and tourism industry and submit a 1-2 page summary outlining: the issue being addressed; the research designed or used to address the issue (may be original or licensed from third party research or research by a third party to which you had input); the outcome of the research; the decisions that were made, money that was saved or revenue that was earned based on the research.

A reference from someone in the organization who will be able to independently verify the impact of this work must be included.

Award: The recipient will receive a plaque, complimentary registration to the TTRA International Conference, and a $200 gift card.

---

KEELING AWARD (Academic Award given in even years)

Awarded to a doctoral student for their completed thesis or dissertation.

Requirements: All doctoral students enrolled (or previously enrolled) in a degree-granting program are eligible to submit an abstract of a completed, original dissertation of 1,000-1,500 words and must include an introduction, theory, methods, results, conclusions. On the cover page please include name, university graduated from, advisor’s name, and title of dissertation. Entry for this award may not be submitted for any other TTRA award.  This work should have been completed between March 31, 2021, and March 31, 2022, as an enrolled doctoral student.  

Criteria:  The papers will be judged by a review committee that will examine the quality of research, contribution to scholarship, relationship to travel and tourism, usefulness/applicability, and quality of the paper.

Award:  The winning student will receive a plaque and a $1,000 cash award, airfare, hotel accommodations, and complimentary registration to the TTRA International Conference.  The winning student will also receive a complimentary TTRA professional membership for one (1) year. *Round-trip travel to the conference and lodging arrangement will be made and paid for TTRA.

---

DISTINGUISHED RESEARCHER AWARD

Requirements: This individual should be one who is recognized by their peers as a valuable resource in the tourism research community and who has provided outstanding service to the field. The recipient should be recognized by not only general overviews of contributions during their career but also recognized by specific examples of what they have done to advance tourism research, the people in it, and how they have worked to ensure that the tourism research community continues to flourish. Any noteworthy contributions made to the tourism research community should also be acknowledged.

Nominations must include: nominee’s name and contact information (including full address, email address, telephone number); number of years in the Tourism Research business; a general overview of the nominee’s contributions to the tourism research community; at least two (2) examples of noteworthy contributions made by the individual; contact information of two (2) individuals in the tourism research industry who wish to see this person nominated. Contact information must include printed name, signature, name of business, email address, and business address.

Nominations must be provided by someone other than the person nominated. Nominations must be submitted to the TTRA President and Executive Director.

Criteria: Individuals should be nominated via email application of an individual’s credentials noting all significant examples of how their talents are seen as being a resource in the tourism research community. These examples may be based upon but not limited to: outstanding service to the tourism research community ground-breaking research methodology or report; professional activity or technique that positively impacted the industry; etc.

All contributions will be considered. The TTRA awards committee will review entries and judge based on above criteria. All contributions meeting the above criteria will be presented to the TTRA Executive Committee for a final decision.

Award: The recipient will receive a plaque as well as a complimentary three (3) year membership in TTRA. Should this award not be presented posthumously, the award will be presented to the family or business associate of the family’s choice. A posthumous award will not carry a complimentary membership.

Disclaimer: The Distinguished Researcher Award is not limited to any one type of professional capacity within the tourism research community nor is it limited to the members of TTRA. All national and international contributions are to be considered for this award. TTRA reserves the right not to award the Distinguished Researcher Award if no one is nominated or for any other reason including incomplete applications, late applications, or if the achievement of the nominee are not clear or does not rise to the level of attainment sought by the review committees.

---

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

The Lifetime Achievement Award is the highest honor given by the Travel and Tourism Research Association. This award is presented at the TTRA International Conference to the individual or organization that has made a highly significant contribution to TTRA as well as to the travel and tourism industry.

Requirements: The award is based on significant, long-term contributions to the industry and/or TTRA, including but not limited to: outstanding service; record of publication; and Professional activity (i.e.; research methodologies, techniques, and important positive outcomes for the industry, and/or marketing concepts, techniques and important positive outcomes for the industry).

Criteria: Nominations must be communicated to the TTRA President and the Executive Director. Written communication should specify the contributions the nominee has made or how the nominee has met the above criteria. Award determined by the TTRA Executive Committee – nominations to the President and Executive Director.

Award: The recipient will receive a plaque, TTRA lifetime membership, and lifetime complimentary TTRA International Conference Registration.

---

CHAPTER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

The Travel and Tourism Research Association’s Chapter Achievement Award is presented to the chapter that best furthers the mission of TTRA through spirit, innovation, effectiveness, and creativity.

Requirements: Please include a proposal of 500 words to show the mission of TTRA through spirit, innovation, effectiveness, and creativity. You may also include an electronic copy of the advertisement or promotion, member recruitment collateral, newsletter, etc. to be reviewed.

Chapters have the option of submitting an entry from the following categories (or may create a category of their choice): membership recruitment and retention, member communications, programming and networking, member benefits, or outreach.

Criteria: This award is determined by a review team of practitioners.
Award: The winning chapter will be presented with a plaque and a $1,000 cash award.

The following awards will be decided by committee members and awarded at the conference:

CHARLES R. GOELDNER ARTICLE OF EXCELLENCE AWARD

This award is named for the long-time editor of the Journal of Travel Research – Charles R. Goeldner. 
Awarded to recognize the most significant work in the Journal of Travel Research during the previous year.

Requirements: No entry is necessary.

Criteria: The Charles R. Goeldner Article of Excellence Award is presented to the author(s) of the article which is judged to be the best appearing in the Journal during the previous year. The award recipient(s) is determined by the JTR editor and his/her committee.

Award: Award recipient(s) will receive a plaque and a complimentary registration to the TTRA International Conference.

---

BEST RESEARCH PAPER AWARD

Awarded for the best research paper.

Requirements: For directions on how to enter your submission, please see the Call for Papers on the TTRA website. Be sure to follow the specific submission criteria as outlined via the Call for Papers (including deadline dates).

Criteria: The top three research papers will be presented at the conference; a winning paper will be named at the conference. Award: Plaques will be presented to the award winners at the TTRA International Conference.

---

BEST ILLUSTRATED PAPER AWARD

Awarded for the best visual paper presented at the conference.

Requirements: For directions on how to enter your submission, please see the Call for Papers on the TTRA website. Be sure to follow specific submission criteria as outlined via the Call for Papers (including deadline dates).

Criteria: The top visual paper will be voted on during the Ideas Fair for Illustrated Papers; a winning paper will be named at the conference. Award: A plaque will be presented to the award winner at the TTRA International Conference.

---

BEST GRADUATE 3-MINUTE THESIS AWARD

Awarded to the best graduate colloquium paper presented at the conference.

Requirements: All submissions will be considered for this award.

Criteria: A panel of three judges will evaluate papers recommended by reviewers according to the following criteria: theoretical innovation, methodological rigor, and potential for making change in the travel and tourism industry and/or the communities in which tourism takes place.

Award: A plaque will be presented to the award winner at the TTRA International Conference

---

BEST QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS AWARD

Awarded to the best qualitative research methods paper presented at the conference.

Requirements: All submissions will be considered for this award.

Criteria: A panel of three judges will evaluate papers recommended by reviewers according to pre-determined criteria.

Award: A plaque will be presented to the award winner at the TTRA International Conference.

(The awards committee reserves the right not to present an award in any given year.  Non-winners will not be notified.)

 

2022 AWARD SUBMISSIONS:

Award Submissions are being accepted through April 1, 2022.

Submissions can be made through the award submission site HERE.