The Influences of Travel Buying Decisions

07/21/2011

At the Brandon Agency, we have many clients that are in the travel industry. Over the past ten (10) years, we have seen a dramatic shift in the way consumers plan and book personal travel. In this study, we wanted to see if the average booking window had changed, what media had the most influence on travel planning decisions, what media consumers found most trustworthy, what (if any) role traditional media still played and what methods consumers were using most often to plan and book personal travel.

Key Findings:
- Booking windows continue to narrow with over 25% of consumers planning their travel within a 4-week period. Overall booking windows were as follows: 

• Last second – 5.36%
• 2-4 weeks prior – 20.83%
• 1-2 months prior – 38.10%
• 3-6 months prior – 23.81%
• 6+ months out – 11.9%

- In terms of influence, we asked consumers if any certain media was the single most influential element when planning vacation travel. Destination websites, word-of-mouth, along with old school printed brochures and destination guides ranked as the most influential elements in planning a personal vacation. Respondents indicated that the following sources were either influential or very influential elements when planning vacation travel:

• Destination websites – 60.59%
• Friends (in person) – 58.33%
• Printed brochures and destination guides – 50.60%
• Search (all) – 50.60%
• Online consumer reviews – 44.65%
• Social media – 44.64%
• Email – 30.95%
• TV – 25%
• Magazines – 24.90%
• Newspaper – 19.88%
• Online Banners – 11.66%

- Traditional interruption media still holds a key role in establishing a consumer’s initial consideration set.

- As expected, elements like printed brochures/guides, destination websites, online reviews, search, WOM, become more important when doing things like establishing a trip budget, finding accommodations, selecting trip activities as well as tools while on vacation.

- In terms of devices, the home computer still reigns supreme in planning and booking vacation travel. 76% of the respondents said they booked their vacation online, with 14% saying they used the telephone. 

-Another interesting observation from the research was the increase in the use of smart phones when actually on vacation for finding activities, restaurants and directions. Nearly 33% of the respondents said they used their smart phone for travel information while actually on vacation.

So what does this all mean? For starters, many of our clients have begun to move away from printed collateral, brochures and destination guides. This study indicates that this may be premature and that the influence these particular elements have on vacation planning is still very high. We were also surprised to see how high search ranked in terms of influence. What we do not know is what specifically consumers search for when planning vacations and we plan to conduct specific research into this area in the future.

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