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Travel word-of-mouth worth billions
If you’ve ever wondered about the power of advocacy in the travel and hospitality business, a market research firm has come up with some numbers:
- More than $30 billion in direct travel and hospitality sales
- And more than $250 billion indirectly.
Chadwick Martin Bailey (CMB) announced those figures in its latest study.
Industry categories surveyed by the Boston-based company include cruise lines, upscale hotels, vacation resorts, casinos, amusement parks, airlines, timeshares and full-service restaurants.
Some highlights:
- While 11% of the US population has taken a cruise, 4% chose a cruise line recommended by friends or relatives.
- With an average of $3,000 per cruise, advocacy directly drove more than $9.5 billion of cruise purchases.
“It’s important to recognize that advocacy is different than buzz,” said Judy Melanson, Travel and Hospitality Practice Leader at CMB.
Buzz is more of a subset of advocacy, which is a whole-hearted and in some cases “evangelistic” endorsement of a product, she added.
She said a key element of the study was the need to target individuals whose opinions carry weight among a wide audience.
She also said CMB found the best word of mouth came from “Generation Y,” or those born 1979 and later. They often have a wide circle of contacts.
But at the same time, it was the Baby Boomers (defined here as being born 1946 to 1964) who accounted for more than half or 59% of the advocacy-related purchases. That figure was $18 billion.
Report by David Wilkening
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