A survey of clients of specialist travel firms has highlighted a consistent rise in the number of consumers intending to travel this year and in 2025 despite holiday price hikes.
The 10th annual Travel Insights report, which surveys customers of companies within The Specialist Travel Association (Aito), revealed a 15% net increase in consumers who were ‘more likely’ to travel this year than last year. Similarly, there was a 15% net increase in those wanting to travel next year.
In the same survey a year ago, there was also a 15% net increase in the number of respondents wanting to travel in 2024. By comparison, there was just a 3.5% net increase in the number of consumers who told last year’s survey they were more likely to travel in 2023 than 2022.
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The net figure is reached by subtracting the number of respondents who say they want to travel less from the number who want to travel more in the survey by customer data and insights company Spike. The survey analysed 12,000 responses from the client databases of 40 Aito companies, including tour operators, travel agents and tourist boards.
Spike director Roy Barker said the jump in consumers’ intent to travel could indicate returning confidence in travel among mature travellers.
“This is about the desire to travel, not necessarily what actually happens,” he said, but stressed: “It looks like a good year for demand in 2024 followed by more growth in 2025. What surprised me is the consistency of that 15% increase, even when we asked people about 2025.”
Referring to the lower increase in travel intent of 3.5% a year ago, he added: “It may be that in 2023 there was still a perception of fear, perhaps an overlap with Covid, which was a fresher memory this time last year, and people have now moved on.”
Respondents to the survey were both more mature and more financially resilient, with more than 80% over the age of 50, and 66% were over 60.
He said: “We are talking about a more mature audience. For a lot of Aito operators the sweet spot is people in their 60s and 70s and there will be more people in their 50s and 60s in the coming decades.”
The 55-75 age range will be the most populous age bracket for this coming decade as the last wave of the Baby Boomers, born from 1946 to 1964, reach 60 this year, the survey highlighted.
When asked where customers would like to travel, 87% said they would travel in the UK, 90% said they would travel to Europe and 70% outside Europe.
More than 60% said they had booked or were about to book a holiday in the UK or Europe while the figure was just under 50% for long-haul.
The survey also suggested consumers were not as impacted by rising holiday costs, with 87% rating the value for money of their holidays as good or excellent.
“Price did not come up as a major issue,” said Barker, who admitted: “We were surprised. It might become an issue [longer-term] but not in the short-term.”
Put into context, 95% of respondents to the survey said their financial position was average or above average and more than 90% felt their financial situation would either remain the same or get better in the next year.
The survey also reported that 85% of respondents viewed travel as an “essential” part of their lifestyle, with 78% saying they would continue to pay more for a better experience.
“Maybe people have experienced travel again [since Covid] and this has increased the realisation of just how important it is to them,” said Barker.
Summarising the survey results, he added: “Your customers love you, they want to travel more and the demographics are on your side; there will be more of them [mature customers] coming into your market.”
Aito executive director Martyn Sumners welcomed the survey results. He said: “It’s great to see that there are more people coming into this sector and we really need to take advantage of that.”