YouGov head of travel and tourism Eva Satkute Stewart says the negative impact of Omicron was short-lived
Last year saw the rise and decline of Covid-19 cases, emerging variants and the relaxing and re-tightening of travel restrictions.
Destinations responded with measures that prioritised quality tourism over quantity, while travel brands redesigned campaigns to fit changes in consumer attitudes driven by the pandemic.
Understanding travellers’ feelings and expectations will be paramount to improving and rekindling demand.
British consumers are feeling more positively about the Covid-19 situation globally improving, and therefore are more confident in making travel plans in 2022.
YouGov’s data shows that the negative impact from Omicron was short-lived with domestic and international leisure travel demand bouncing back to 54% and 35% respectively.
Data shows roughly a quarter (24%) of all Britons expect to spend more on travel in 2022.
Dream Destinations
The beginning of the year is typically a busy season to book summer holidays.
For Britons, Spain continues to be one of the most highly-considered destinations, with 49% saying they will visit the country within the next 12 months.
Italy (39%), Greece (38%), France (33%), Portugal (29%) and the United States (28%) are the closest runners-up in our poll of the most-popular destinations for potential travellers this year.
Looking at trends over the past three months, different travellers are drawn to distinct locations.
Luxury travellers have their sights set on the US, adventurous travellers are keen on Italy and Canada, while responsible travellers (focused on wellness, and environmental impacts) have been considering Scotland or domestic trips.
Destination brands need to evaluate not only the key performance indicators of their brands but how their brand resonates against modern travellers.
The value of social media and user-generated content
Travellers are increasingly turning to online searches and social media to research and plan trips, share travel experiences and make decisions based on travellers’ reviews.
YouGov data shows that Brits who travelled abroad in 2021 were significantly more likely to be on social media when compared to the average British citizen (92% vs 87%).
Travellers were also more likely to be using apps such as TikTok (18% vs 15%), Snapchat (22% vs 19%) and Instagram (46% vs 43%).
Travellers also showed a strong affinity for ‘user-generated content’ (UGC). More than four in five British travellers who took a trip last year said they consume UGC (82% vs 65% of all British adults).
Close to a quarter of this travel audience said they consume travel content that other social media users create, ranking only behind UGC genres such as reviews (25%) and music (24%).
There is a clear ongoing demand for tourism coupled with consumers intending to spend more, and we are confident about a steady travel recovery in 2022.
However, consumers themselves have changed because of the pandemic.
New research has to focus on understanding the modern, post-pandemic traveller.
Brands and destinations need to adapt their marketing campaigns if they want to win the hearts, minds and business of these travellers.