February 24, 2012
Solo travelers now account for over $28 billion in travel spending.
There are a lot more single Americans than you realize. It’s time travel and hospitality marketers started catering to them.
Nearly 1 in 3 Americans are single, and over 50 million Americans have never been married.
- 105 million adults in the U.S., nearly one-third of all Americans, are single.
- Almost 40% of the single population are divorced, and 60% have never been married.
- Marriage rates have declined from 72% in 1960 to just 52% in 2008.
Recently, Gary Leopold, CEO of ISM, one of the top travel and hospitality marketing firms in the U.S., explored the subject of solo travelers in a blog post for Media Post.
According to Gary, the statistics on singles travel spending are staggering.
- Singles account for $2.2 trillion in annual buying power.
- 1 in 4 Americans who travel domestically or abroad now do so alone.
- 25 million singles age 42 or older spent over $28 billion on travel in 2008.
Women are more likely than men to travel alone.
- According to Gary, women aged 42 or older are twice as likely as men to vacation alone.
- More than 80% of Match.com users listed travel as one of their interests.
A few travel and hospitality markers are taking advantage of this trend.
- Norwegian Cruise Line launched a ship, Epic, that has 128 “studio” suites and a private lounge designed for the single traveler.
- Some of the all-inclusive resorts like Breezes have packages just for singles.
- REI Adventures partners with Match.com to offer adventure travel trips to singles.
I did a Google search on the keywords “singles travel” and found dozens of singles travel specialists.
They’re focused on a wide variety of singles travel niches, including:
- Cruises
- Adventure travel
- Over 40s travelers
- Luxury travel
- Jewish Singles
- Singles Travel Clubs
It’s harder to find restaurant chains and other hospitality brands that cater to singles.
That surprises me, since the mothers of newly graduated 20 somethings and recently divorced adult children will tell you they eat out more than their married brothers and sisters.
What you can do to attract singles to your travel or hospitality brand
- You can start by developing packages and promotions just for singles.
- If you’re a travel brand, experiment with eliminating your use of single supplements.
- When marketing to singles, stop pricing on a per person/double occupancy basis.
- If you’re a restaurant, consider a singles’ menu and options for people who don’t cook at home.
What are you doing to reach the single traveler or diner?
Have you tried special packages or offers? What’s worked? What hasn’t? Tell us about it.
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Leisure Services, Research, Restaurant Marketing, Travel and Tourism, Trends | Tagged: appealing to the single traveler, CCT Advertising, hospitality marketing, leisure marketing, leisure marketing specialists, marketing to the single traveler, marketing to the solo traveler, reaching the solo traveler, single travel, single traveler, statistics on singles travel, the single traveler, Tom Leydon, travel and leisure marketing, travel packages to the single traveler | 
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Posted by 5to9branding
February 22, 2012
Several new websites and apps are helping reinvent the travel space.
If you’re a travel marketer, it’s important to understand how these sites are changing the travel game, and how you can use them to attract new guests and gather competitive intelligence.
Here are five fast-growing concepts leading travel experts say are leading us into the future.
1. HotelTonight is an iPhone and Android app that delivers day of booking hotel discounts.
The app gives consumers the ability to book a hotel the same day they need it, at a steeply discounted rate.
The site partners with hotels with too much inventory to fill open rooms with last-minute guests, and save them up to 70% off the hotel price.
Implication for travel marketers: If you’re a hotelier, consider partnering with HotelTonight to sell out your remaining day-of inventory.
2. Backbid allows travelers with a flexible hotel reservation to solicit other hoteliers for better deals.
They post their reservation on the site and wait to see if other hotels will offer them a lower rate or incentives to move a booking over to the second hotel.
Implication for travel marketers: This site gives you an opportunity to see the rates your competitors are offering in real-time, and decide if you want to beat them.
3. Room 77 is built on the philosophy that you should be able to choose a room in a hotel like a seat on an airplane.
Room 77 offers you the chance to see what rooms look like in a hotel and instructs visitors on how to book that exact room. So far, they have well over half a million room sin their database.
Implication for travel marketers: This is one more site to showcase your property and market your inventory to savvy travelers.
4. Hipmunk is a new flight metasearch site that takes travel planning to the granular level.
In their own words, the site”takes the agony out of travel planning” by giving you more information on your flight.
For instance, if you like to sleep on the airplane, you can find out which ones will be “dark flights.” It also displays in as simple a format as you can get, the flights that are cheapest, quickest, and have the shortest stopovers.
Implications for travel marketers: This is just one more example of how much detail travelers now want in their searches. Look for ways to provide more detailed searches on your site.
5. Gogobot is built on the belief that people want travel advice from people they trust.
So it offers travelers tips and advice from a member’s network of family, friends and business colleagues.
Implications for travel marketers: The Gogobot phenomenon proves that people are using social media to make more and more of their travel decisions.
Make sure you’re monitoring social sites like this and responding to both positive and negative comments.
Thanks to EyeforTravel for identifying these sites for their North American Innovation Award. By the way, HotelTonight won, and Hipmunk was the runner up!
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4 Comments | Leisure Services, Travel and Tourism Marketing, Trends | Tagged: hotel trends, how travelers shop online, latest travel innovations, new travel apps, noteworthy travel marketing trends, travel and leisure marketing, travel trends | Permalink
Posted by 5to9branding
February 14, 2012
Thought you would enjoy this infographic on social media created by the travel experts at Simplifying and EyeforTravel.
Before we show it to you, here are a few statistics on social media Simpliflying didn’t want you to miss:
- Travel marketers surveyed revealed that using social media reduced PR costs by at least 24%.
- Most companies in the travel industry are spending over 25% of their marketing budget on social media.
- 61% of companies surveyed will spend more money on social media efforts over the next quarter.
- Interestingly, social media is being seen as a viable way to drive customer loyalty given that almost82% of frequent flyers use Facebook and place the most importance on great customer service.
- Airlines are increasingly taking to performing customer service on social media as almost 86% of tweets to airlines are about customer service issues.
- There’s an increasing investment in social media platforms to engage customers. About 191 airlinesnow have Twitter accounts and tweets sent out by airlines increased by over 51% from March 2011 to July 2011.
Credits: Simplifyling and EyeforTravel
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Leave a Comment » | Social Media, Travel and Tourism Marketing, Trends | Tagged: CCT Advertising, EyeforTravel, Simpliflying, Tom Leydon, travel marketing and social media, travel marketing infographic, travel marketing ROI | Permalink
Posted by 5to9branding
February 6, 2012
According to Forrester, only 5% of Americans surveyed actually scanned a QR code.
QR codes are showing up in all sorts of travel ads, but are they effective?
According to a Forrester Research, only 14 million Americans scanned QR codes in a recent 3-month period.
Their research found that only 5% of Americans who own mobile phones actually used the 2-D codes in a recent 3-month period.
And the majority of those 14 million early adopters were young, affluent males.
Ad Age recently interviewed some experts in the field and reported three reasons that QR codes haven’t caught on:
- People are confused about how to use them.
- There’s little uniformity among the apps that read them.
- Many of the codes link to useless information or to the company’s website.
Melissa Parish, Forrester’s senior analyst-social and mobile marketing had this to say:
QR codes are “another instance of shiny-object syndrome. Something becomes trendy or sexy, and marketers feel they have to jump onboard to position themselves as innovative and make sure they don’t fall behind.”
If you want to increase the likelihood of prospective guests scanning your QR code consider the following:
- Make the content you link the QR code to rewarding and valuable.
- Make sure your QR code is readable.
- Don’t post codes on billboards in areas with no internet access or poor cell phone coverage like subways or in-flight magazines.
And while you’re’ at it, tell us how you’ve used QR codes effectively. Or if you’re really brave, tell us how they haven’t worked for you.
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Leave a Comment » | Mobile marketing, Research, Travel and Tourism Marketing, Trends | Tagged: CCT Advertising, effectiveness of QR codes, examples of QR codes in travel and tourism marketing, how to make QR codes more effective, QR codes in travel advertising, Tom Leydon, using QR codes in travel and tourism advertising | Permalink
Posted by 5to9branding
January 25, 2012
Luxury travelers have money again and are spending it.
Ancestral travel, destination weddings and booking further in advance top the list of trends industry experts see for the coming year
This year’s Luxury Travel Expo featured a panel discussion of four upscale tour companies who made the following predictions:
Swain Tours, Abercrombie & Kent, Classic Vacations, and Tauck identified these three trends:
- Watch for an uptick in destination weddings. One of the panel discussion participants noted that on a recent visit to an upscale Mexican resort there were four weddings a day.
- Savvy luxury travelers follow a crisis. After the protests in Egypt, Abercrombie & Kent lowered their prices by 50% and suddenly luxury travelers weren’t afraid to visit.
- Look for more all-inclusive pricing because luxury travelers are getting tired of having additional travel fees piled on to their bills.
The Travel Experts, a cooperative of 200 travel agencies specializing in luxury travel recently surveyed their member agencies, who identified these trends:
- First off, the luxury travel market is back. Luxury travelers have money again, and are spending it.
- There is more high-end travel being booked through agents, but less mid and low-end travel.
- Luxury travelers are once again planning their travel well in advance of their trips.
- Due in part to a decrease in discretionary spending by Gen X and Y, multi-generational travel is back with grandparents taking their kids and grandkids on trips.
- Italy is the hottest destination for luxury travelers, with the rest of Europe, South America, Alaska, Hawaii, South Africa, Australia, Cambodia and Vietnam rounding out the top destinations.
- Travel that helps benefit the conservation of wildlife and preservation of historic sites around the world.
- Traveling to one’s ancestral roots.
- Off-season travel, which allows travelers to experience a destination with fewer crowds and better deals.
- Traveling with an expert: small group travel with best-in-industry experts.
- Stanley picked these as “hot” cities for 2012: Sao Paulo, Brazil; Salta, Argentina, Beirut, Luang Prabang, Stockholm, Tallinn and Mostar.
What kinds of trends are you seeing from the luxury travel segment? Tell us about your experience.
Special thanks to Tim Scott for reporting on the Luxury Travel Expo at the Luxury Latin America website.
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6 Comments | Travel and Tourism Marketing, Trends | Tagged: ad agencies specializing in travel and leisure marketing, CCT Advertising, luxury travel trends, luxury travel trends 2012, Tom Leydon, travel and leisure marketing, travel and leisure specialists, travel marketing specialists | Permalink
Posted by 5to9branding
January 20, 2012
The Hotel Tonight app has been downloaded by more than 800,000 iPhone users.
A variety of new mobile tools and apps cater to procrastinators and locals
If your hotel or resort property’s website isn’t optimized for mobile, you could be losing out on the growing market for same-day bookings.
According to a recent story in USA Today, online travel agencies are introducing a rising number of booking tools and features geared towards people who book a room on the day of their stay.
The statistics indicate this phenomenon is not just a passing trend
- 60% of mobile bookings on Priceline are for the same day
- 65% of Orbitz’ mobile bookings are same-day reservations versus 14% for desktop computers
- Marriott recently reported that 50% of its same-day bookings came through the mobile channel
- More than 800,000 iPhone users have downloaded Hotel Tonight an app featuring daily hotel deals
Who are these people and why do they wait until the last day to book?
They include:
- travelers who don’t like to plan
- long-distance commuters working late
- homeowners without electricity
- travelers whose flight are cancelled
- suburban deal seekers
- couples celebrating anniversaries
Should your travel brand take advantage of this new trend?
- Hotel Tonight reports that participating hotels like their service because they don’t have to commit a minimum number of rooms
- Given that an average of 40% of rooms go unbooked each night, why wouldn’t you explore this new opportunity?
How much of your bookings are coming through same-day mobile reservations?
Tell us how this new trend is affecting your business and what you’ve learned so far.
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9 Comments | iPhone Apps, Mobile marketing, Travel and Tourism Marketing, Trends | Tagged: CCT Advertising, mobile hotel bookings up, mobile marketing for hotels, recent articles on mobile booking tools for hotels, same day hotel bookings, Tom Leydon, trends in hotel marketing, trends in hotel revenue management | Permalink
Posted by 5to9branding
January 5, 2012
New research shows that in the past year, 20% more travelers booked their cruises online.
A new study by travel deals site Travelzoo found that almost 4 in 10 people now book their cruises on the internet.
- This is a channel traditionally led by travel agent sales, an increase of 20% over the previous year.
- The research also found that 78% go online to plan their cruise but also access some offline information when choosing their cruise.
- Another 6% of people do their research exclusively online.
3 of the top factors in deciding whether to book a cruise?
- The itinerary (27%).
- Price (26%). In fact 25% of the people polled took their first cruise because they found a good deal.
- The reputation of the cruise line. A total of 17% of the 1,400 respondents cited it as the most important factor in deciding what to book.
The industry still needs to address the perception that cruising is expensive.
- Price was cited as the greatest barrier to cruising, with 30% of respondents listing prohibitive cost as a reason for not considering a cruise holiday.
- The research found that 19% of ‘cruise virgins’ are likely or very likely to cruise over the next year.
- Only 11% of the total said they felt cruising was not for their age group.
A Travel Weekly article asked Travelzoo UK managing director Joel Brandon-Bravo to comment on the research.
Brandon-Bravo’s observation:“The increasing influence of the internet and brand reputation in the cruiser’s decision-making process demonstrates that putting in place a strong online marketing and PR strategy should be a priority for cruise operators and agents.
Cruises were one of the last segments of the travel industry in which travel agents still controlled the lion’s share of the bookings.
What does that tell us about where the industry is going, and what the future looks like for travel agents? Let us know your thoughts.
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1 Comment | Travel and Tourism Marketing, Trends | Tagged: are online cruise bookings growing?, CCT Advertising, how many people book cruises online?, research on booking cruises online, research on how people book cruises, Tom Leydon, travelzoo research | Permalink
Posted by 5to9branding
November 28, 2011
A study of women in 22 countries identified 5 ways brands are failing women, and 5 strategies to earn back their trust.
A landmark study found that women control 73% of household spending, but feel neglected by many brands.
Authors Michael and Kate Sayre, partners at Boston Consulting Group recently published a book: Women Want More: How to capture your share of the world’s largest, fastest growing market .
The landmark study upon which the book is based traced the attitudes and purchasing habits of 12,000 women in twenty-two countries.
The study found that women control 73% of household spending, and $4.3 trillion in consumer spending in the U.S. alone.
But it found that women the world over are dissatisfied with the products and services they buy. The reason?
Many companies don’t take the time to understand the issues modern women face, and create products that fail to meet their needs.
The authors found that women are having difficulty balancing all the roles they are called to play at home and in their job. They’re time-starved and stressed out.
And they struggle to balance what the authors call “the job at the job and the job at home.”
The book reports that companies fail to meet the needs of women in five key ways:
- They are not addressing women’s need for time-saving solutions.
- They have poor product design and customization for women.
- Their sales and marketing efforts are clumsy and often insulting to women.
- They fail to align with women’s values or develop community.
- They don’t ‘give back’ to society as well or as much as they could.
The authors offer five ways that travel & leisure brands can earn the loyalty of women:
- Take the time to understand and tailor your product to their needs and values.
- Create products and services that save women time.
- Demonstrate your own values and commitment to the community.
- Empower your sales force to be more responsive.
- Offer 24/7 access to customer service, and product information that’s simple and easy to find
According to the study, women place a premium on the following values:
- Love
- Health
- Honesty
- Emotional Wellbeing.
Women want the brands they buy to understand those values, and offer them services that honor them.
According to Ms. Sayer, “Take care of those core values,and companies can really connect with women.”
How is your travel & leisure brand connecting with women? What changes have you made to reach better connect to women’s wants and needs? Talk to us.
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Leave a Comment » | Audiences, Leisure Products, My Advertising Agency, Research, Trends | Tagged: Boston Consulting Group, CCT Advertising, consumer spending, fastest growing market, household spending, Kate Sayre, leisure marketing, marketing to women, Michael Sayre, Tom Leydon, travel and leisure marketing, Women Want More: How to capture your share of the world's largest | Permalink
Posted by 5to9branding
November 18, 2011
If you want your travel or leisure brand to reach Millennials, study this Pew Research Center report that describes their distinguishing characteristics.
The Pew Research Center released a comprehensive study on Millennials, the roughly 50 million Americans ages 18-29 who have come of age in the new millennium.
The report explored the demographics, priorities, values and social behavior of this generation.
It uncovered these 8 important distinctions that any marketer of a travel or leisure brand should take note of:
- Millennials are more ethnically diverse than any other generation. Almost 4 in 10 Millennials classify themselves as a racial or ethnic minority, compared to less than 3 in 10 Baby Boomers.
- They are much less likely to be married or have children than previous generations were at comparable ages: Only 1 in 5 are married, compared to 2 in 5 for Baby Boomers at the same age. And 1 in 3 are parents.
- They consider their technology toys almost like a third appendage. More than 8 in 10 say they sleep with their cell phone by their bedside. Fully 2 out of 3 admit they text while driving. And 3 out of 4 have created a profile on a social networking site. By comparison, only 50% of Gen Xers and 30% of Baby Boomers have done so.
- Just 1 in 5 are married, but 1 in 3 are parents, owing to the high percentage of single moms in this age group.
- Despite coming to age during two wars, just 2% of Millennial males are military veterans, compared to 6% of Gen Xers and 13% of Bab Boomer men at a comparable age.
- Exercise is a big part of their lives, with 56% saying they had gotten vigorous exercise in the last twenty-four hours, compared to only 46% of the overall population.
- They watch less TV than other generations, with only 57% having watched more than an hour of television in the past 24 hours compared to 67% of Gen Xers and 80% of Baby Boomers.
- And most striking of all, 37% of all Millennials are unemployed
Here are a few examples of how this information can help guide your travel marketing efforts to Millennials:
- Create promotions and highlight benefits that will appeal to singles.
- Does your brand have a special appeal to physically active people? Tell them about it.
- If you must reach them in TV, advertise on shows like The Daily Show, which reaches Millennials in large numbers.
- If you’re doing mass media advertising, be sure to include a large social media component, since this is where they’re spending more and more of their time.
- A huge FYI: If you’re marketing a high-ticket item, you may want to spend less on your marketing efforts to Millennials, until the economy gets stronger.
Click here for a downloadable copy of the full report, “Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next”
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Leave a Comment » | Audiences, Branding/Positioning, Leisure Products, Leisure Services, Metrics, My Advertising Agency, Production Values, Research, Social Media, Trends | Tagged: branding, CCT Advertising, leisure marketing, millenials, Pews Research Center, Tom Leydon, travel and leisure marketing, travel marketing, travel marketing to millennials | Permalink
Posted by 5to9branding
November 14, 2011
The latest Expedia survey confirms that travelers are willing to trade in their trusted hotel brands for lower room rates.
For the first time in 18 years of measurement, less than 50% of travelers in a recent survey say that brand is important to them.
Mike Reichartz, VP Market Management at Expedia spoke at the recent International Society of Hospitality Consultants conference about the dramatic changes in the travel business.
He restated some familiar statistics that startle the senses when delivered by a person in Mike’s position:
- Travelers now say that rate and free internet are more important than brand when choosing a hotel.
- In Mike’s words, “As price becomes more transparent, brand clarity becomes more urgent.”
- As a result, “There will be no pricing power in the market in 2011. Value is vogue.”
2011 will continue to be a year where leisure travelers trade down. But business travel should be up.
- Half of the vacations last year were weekend trips.
- “The biggest challenge in the hotel business is recapturing that lost night.” (Incidentally, Mike said the average year-over-year length of stay was down 4.5% in August.)
- Travelers in the US, UK and EU are trading down while travelers in Australia and Japan are trading up.
- 34% of Expedia’s largest corporate clients said they expect to allocate more funds to travel budgets next year, while 4% said they would reduce budgets (Last year it was 13% and 9%.)
The online landscape continues to change dramatically.
- 20% of all travelers are now using meta search engine sites like Kayak.com and yapta.com to research the best prices on flights and hotels.
- Private sales and collective buying sites like jetsetter.com, sniqueaway.com and tripalertz.com may change booking habits even more.
- As an example, Mike cited Groupon, which reached $1 billion in internet-generated revenue faster than any previous company.
One internet travel planning statistic has remained constant in recent years: The number of people planning trips online has stayed at a constant 56-57%.
And for the 10th straight year, respondents ranked being able to check the lowest fares and rates as their top reason for using the internet to plan their trips.
Some things never change.
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4 Comments | Leisure Products, Leisure Services, Travel and Tourism, Trends | Tagged: 2011 Travel trends, business travel trends, business travel trends for 2011, CCT Advertising, expedia's predictions for 2011, latest expedia traveler survey, leisure marketing, leisure travel statistics, leisure travel trends, Mike Reichartz, Tom Leydon, travel trends for 2011, VP Market Management at Expedia | Permalink
Posted by 5to9branding
