Value stubbornly remains in vogue

Travel marketing guru Peter Yesawich admits most economic models show that demand for travel will recover in the year ahead but he cautions “this doesn’t mean consumers are ready to pay higher fares and rates just yet.”
 

His “2011 Portrait of American Travelers” reveals that travelers are still focused on finding the best fares and rates when planning and purchasing travel services for either business of leisure.
 

“This should come as no surprise as the memory of their personal financial angst caused by the Great Recession still looms large,” he writes.
 

So where do travelers think they’re getting their best value and where might providers look most closely?
 

Almost half of those surveyed or 48 percent said they generally get the best prices on travel services from online travel agency websites. Just a little more than one third answered “online from travel supplier websites.” Only eleven percent cited “over the phone from travel suppliers” and only six percent said over the phone from travel agents.
 

“It comes as no surprise that the Internet is the shopping vehicle of choice (particularly among travelers less than 35 years of age), and the ability to comparison shop fares and rates across multiple travel suppliers is, increasingly, the reason cited why,” Yesawich said.
 

Consumers’ belief in the likelihood of finding the best deals online is also the primary reason they "typically use" online travel agency sites such as Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz and Priceline when shopping for travel services, he added.
 

He said it is also interesting to note that visitation of the sites that are most likely to yield the best deals (meta search sites) remains low. Specifically, only one in seven travelers has even been to a meta search site. Even fewer have visited private sale and/or collective buying sites. Why is that?
 

“This is presumably because the latter don’t enjoy the same degree of awareness among consumers, yet this is also likely to change in the year ahead,” he said.
 

The data from our 2011 Portrait of American Travelers also reveal an intriguing insight into the evolving role of the Internet when it comes to "planning" versus "purchasing" travel. Specifically, family and friends (52 percent) and travel guidebooks (46 percent) still trump Internet search engines (39 percent) as preferred sources of "ideas and inspiration" when planning leisure travel.
Yesawich’s conclusion: the most effective destination and travel service supplier marketing strategies must include both offline and online components.
 

By David Wilkening