Research Studies

As a busy tourism professional, it is easy to forget your customer is front and central to your marketing NOT your destination product or service. Unfortunately, we see many tourism businesses and destination marketers do not place enough importance on the one success factor that is critical to the survival of any business – understanding the customer. One of our favorite travel target markets is seniors. According to AARP research, practically all Baby Boomers (99%) anticipated traveling for leisure (either domestic or internationally), with approximately 4 or 5 trips in the works. We will never see another generation as cashed up and time rich in our lifetimes. But many travel marketers, destinations are making big mistakes with this market. We have created the most comprehensive seniors' travel persona you are likely to find anywhere. READ REPORT … [Read more...] about Seniors Travel Profile – Everything You Need to Know and More

PGAV Destinations, in conjunction with H2R Market Research and global media partner Blooloop, recently published the 2018 Voice of the Visitor report. Now in its third year, Voice of the Visitor is the only research study of its kind that explores attraction guests' 2017 travel trends and forecasts their 2018 intentions. The study remains the first and most comprehensive U.S. report on destination guests’ collective opinions, attitudes, and expectations—generated directly from guest feedback. READ REPORT … [Read more...] about 2018 Voice of the Visitor

Editor’s note: Amadeus is pleased to share a guest blog from Cindy D’Aoust, president and CEO of Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA). With cruise season in full swing, Cindy shares her favorite trends setting sail this year. Travelers around the world are falling in love with the experience and convenience of a cruise vacation. When you only have to unpack once but get to visit several destinations in one cruise, you see more of the world and spend more time with loved ones on your vacation. While we are seeing many trends for this year, I’ve picked out a few of my favorites trends that have already begun to set said this year: Skip-gen cruises As a grandparent myself, I have loved seeing this trend really come to life. Cruise lines cater to skip-gen cruising in the same way they cater to a variety of cruisers, offering diverse itineraries and on-board activities that are tailored to the guest profile and preferences. Many grandparents want to travel with their … [Read more...] about Cruising in 2018: CLIA’s CEO Spotlights Her 3 Favorite Trends

The 2018 Adventure Trends Report is a comprehensive look at the issues facing adventure travel businesses and destinations in 2018. Now a decade after the global economic recession that hit tourism hard in 2008, tourism growth has recovered, and 2018 is shaping up to be another milestone year. It may seem paradoxical that, in an increasingly unpredictable world, where natural disasters and terrorism hit major tourism destinations and where borders are tighter and nationalist rhetoric is stronger, tourism numbers continue to grow. Yet, not only did it grow, but tourism overall outpaced the growth of the global economy, contributing to economic growth, job creation, and tax revenues around the world. Download this free report to learn more about the top 20 trends in 2018, such as: New technologies, such as Blockchain, impacting the adventure travel space; Slow travel; Women-only itineraries; Growth of solo travelers; Issues of overtourism and undertourism; And … [Read more...] about 20 Adventure Trends to Watch in 2018

On the 10th anniversary of the launch of its international expansion, STR reports that there are 184,299 hotels comprising 16,966,280 million rooms around the world. That number of rooms represents a 17.7% increase over the last 10 years. STR defines a hotel on three exclusionary criteria: 1) generates revenue on a nightly per-room basis, 2) has 10 or more rooms and 3) is open to the public (excludes those properties requiring membership, affiliation or club status). Year Global hotels Global hotel rooms 2008 170,047 14,419,917 2010 172,969 15,001,109 2012 175,767 15,479,484 2014 178,533 15,984,508 2016 182,149 16,615,817 2018 184,299 16,966,280 Source: STR / 2018 data as of February, all other data as of year-end Founded in 1985, STR expanded its benchmarking and analytics platform to markets outside of North America and the Caribbean in 2008. The company maintains the world’s largest global hotel performance sample, … [Read more...] about Global Hotel Inventory Has Grown 18% in 10 Years

WTTC’s annual Economic Impact Research, released today, shows Travel & Tourism was responsible for the creation of 7 million new jobs worldwide. The report also shows that 2017 was a bumper year for the global Travel & Tourism sector, which grew at 4.6%, 50% faster than the global economy as a whole (3% growth during 2017). Gloria Guevara, WTTC President & CEO said, “Travel & Tourism creates jobs, drives economic growth and helps build better societies. Our research shows that our sector was responsible for the creation of one in five of all jobs globally. In the last few years, Governments around the world are realizing the extraordinary benefits of tourism and I congratulate them for taking steps to maximize our sector’s potential.” For the seventh consecutive year, the Travel & Tourism sector has outperformed the global economy and in 2017 was the fastest growing broad economic sector globally, showing stronger growth than all sectors including … [Read more...] about One in Five of All New Jobs Created Globally in 2017 Are Attributable to Travel & Tourism