“The travel industry is in uncharted waters. A sector famed for its resilience in the face of many global crises over the years has, in truth, never faced a crisis as extraordinary as this”. This is what is written in the opening of the Beyond Covid-19 report: the road to recovery for the travel industry, created by TripAdvisor.
The short-term attention of companies, while some travel restrictions remain in force, is understandably aimed at finding a way to “stay afloat” by managing costs and, where possible, finding new ways to reach and attract customers. Spreading the horizons, as rightly pointed out in the TripAdvisor report, there is a longer-term unknown factor, which leaves many companies and advertisers in the uncertainty about how to plan for the future. When will you start traveling globally again and how will you do it? Will consumer pre-pandemic travel habits return or will a new normal emerge? How should companies and advertisers guide their marketing strategies to engage travelers at the right time?
In the research, which lasted several months, the main results of which were announced in a press release addressed to investors, TripAdvisor wanted to give an answer to the concerns of the companies in the industry. The information is the result of a widespread analysis of travelers’ behavior and sentiment, and as explained in the survey, it is an analysis of what consumers are expressing and doing, with the aim of outlining the path to be followed.
Looking at the data, a positive situation emerges overall. Consumers’ desire to travel has not gone away – about 2 out of 5 (41%) are optimistic that they will make the same (or even greater) number of trips than last year.
Short ones, that is to destinations closer to home, are a recurring theme, with almost half (44%) of consumers who say they are willing to travel, and two thirds (61%) who say they are more relaxed when traveling short (between 3 and 5 days). Consumers are 218% more likely to take a trip where they can relax than before the pandemic, and almost 2/3 (59%) would prefer less frequented destinations and perhaps with greater isolation. New Zealand, Germany and Switzerland, that are among the first markets to enter the “emergency” phase, recorded a strong recovery in restaurant searches on TripAdvisor. Holidays to beach destinations or surrounded by nature are among the favorites, and there has also been an increase in the search for campsites and hotels on the beach, with a peak by North American consumers.
In the TripAdvisor study, 5 distinct phases of tourism impact and recovery were outlined. The first is a drop, i.e. trips decrease drastically when widespread restrictions are applied, followed by the plateau, where the decrease in reservations stabilizes and consumers start dreaming of the next trip. We then move on to the phase of limitation of restrictions and the first signs of recovery in the restaurant sector, which leads to travel bookings within one’s own country and perhaps close to home. The last, but not least, is that of the borders opening and, consequently, also the resumption of holidays abroad.
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