• Experiential travel as a motive for a holiday has increased by 8 percentage points globally since 2019, with motivations to visit Europe following a similar pattern.
• Northern European countries are better positioned to capitalize on these new demand trends.

  Mabrian, a leading travel intelligence company, has presented its latest analysis on the evolution of travel motivations for 2024, with a specific focus on the changing trends for visiting Europe and the destinations projecting the best prospects for the upcoming year. The study, conducted through advanced methodologies, including sentiment analysis of travelers through active listening on social media and transactional data on future air connectivity, offers insights into the evolving trends in tourist interests in Europe and the well-positioned destinations.   Mabrian's analysis identifies a global increase in experiential travel, particularly reflected in Europe, specifically in active and natural tourism. Northern European countries lead this shift and position themselves as those best poised to capitalize on these new demand trends. Italy, in turn, tops the list of potential trending destinations for 2024, followed by France and Germany. The Piedmont region in Italy, New Aquitaine in France, and the East of England stand out as the top three destinations, emphasizing interest in a blend of cultural, natural, and gastronomic attractions with robust air connectivity.   Key conclusions for 2024   Some of the key conclusions from Mabrian's analysis focus on the global increase in experiential travel in European destinations, providing a new landscape for travel:  

1. Towards experiential travel: Mabrian's analysis indicates a global trend towards more experiential and less conventional travel motivations, with an 8% increase in experiential travel since 2019. Experiential tourism encompasses activities such as active, natural, gastronomic, and wellness experiences, while conventional tourism includes culture, sun and beach, family activities, nightlife, and shopping.
2. New european trends reflecting global change: Europe has experienced an equivalent 8% growth in experiential activities from 2019 to 2023, reducing the prominence of conventional motivations. Active and nature tourism emerge as the fastest-growing, gaining 5 and 3 percentage points, respectively.
3. Countries best positioned for experiential tourism: Countries in Northern Europe, including Iceland, Norway, Finland, Slovenia, and Switzerland, are better positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for experiential activities, with a share of over 60% in visitor interest.
4. Potential trending destinations for 2024: Mabrian identifies Italy as the leading country with the most potential destinations (four), followed by France and Germany with two each. The top 10 trending regions for 2024 also include the United Kingdom and Portugal.

  Top 3 trending destinations:  

1. Piedmont Region, Italy: Notable for destinations like Turin, Stresa, and Alba, Piedmont stands out with a balance of cultural and natural offerings. Gastronomic experiences feature prominently among experiential motivations, coupled with positive trends in flight accessibility.
2. New Aquitaine, France: Featuring destinations such as Bordeaux, Biarritz, and Limoges, this region stands out for its oenological and gastronomic products alongside active tourism. The region enjoys good and stable air connectivity.
3. East of England, United Kingdom: Including Cambridge, Essex, and Norfolk, this region achieves a balance between cultural and natural offerings, positioning it as a growing destination. Its solid and stable connectivity further supports its appeal.
4. To complete the top 10 trending destinations, notable mentions include: Occitania (France), Campania (Italy), North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany), Lombardy (Italy), Emilia-Romagna (Italy), the province of Hamburg (Germany), and the province of Lisbon (Portugal).

  For this study, over 380 million tourist mentions online from the period between January and October of this year have been analyzed and compared with the four previous years. This technique examines spontaneous conversations related to travel on social media (Big Data) through Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing, interpreting what motivates travelers to visit a place. Additionally, to identify destinations that will potentially be trending in the coming months, transactional data on future air connectivity has been utilized.   In conclusion, Mabrian's 2024 trend analysis reveals a dynamic shift towards experiential travel globally and specifically in Europe, highlighting Italy, France, and Germany as key players in the upcoming travel trends in 2024.   Carlos Cendra, CMO of Mabrian, comments, "While it is challenging to generalize trends today, given the disparity of segments and interests, it is crucial to identify the global and structural shift in travel motivations, especially among the new generations. Each destination possesses unique characteristics and a distinct tourism offering, but all must pay attention to the evolution of traveler motivations and strive to adapt their offerings as agilely as possible, given the competition is global and increasing."

 

• Compared to last year, Croatia anticipates higher tourism activity during the autumn and winter months, with specific months showing an increase of more than 20%.

  Mabrian, a leading travel intelligence company, has analyzed in a new study the low season opportunities for Croatia and the Mediterranean. The analysis was presented at the 7th edition of the Tourism 365 Conference that has taken place in Toplice, Croatia, this month.   This forum brought together both public entities in the tourism sector and major private companies to discuss opportunities for maintaining sustainable tourism activity throughout the south-eastern Mediterranean region all year round. The conference also featured prominent international speakers, including Carlos Cendra, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Mabrian, who presented forecasts and analyses of tourism strengths and opportunities for Croatia and other Mediterranean countries.   The main conclusions of the study are:  

• A Seasonal Context with Room for Improvement. Croatia still has room for improvement during the considered low season months. When compared to the context and its closest competitors, the data indicates that the Southeast Mediterranean region is 9 percentage points more dependent on the high season than the average in the nearby Mediterranean, while Croatia is 16% more.
• Promising Prospects for the Low Season. One of the main takeaways from Mabrian's analysis is the promising outlook for Croatia in the coming months. It forecasts a 10% increase in tourism from September to March 24, compared to last year. In terms of growth, Croatia is expected to outperform Italy and Turkey during these months, although it has not yet reached the levels seen in Greece.

 

• Croatia Well Positioned for Travellers’ Motivations. According to the latest global travellers’ motivations study conducted by Mabrian, there is a consistent growth in experiential motivations for travel, substituting more conventional motivations. Analysis of travellers sentiment and preferences, based on over 400 million interactions on social media, reveals that interests in Active, Natural, Wellness, and Gastronomy experiences are gaining importance over Sunbathing, Family Travel, Shopping, and Nightlife. This positions Croatia with a great opportunity to solidify its leadership in Nature and Active tourism products during the low season, compared to Mediterranean competitors. Additionally, there is an interesting opportunity to further develop Gastronomy and Culture-related activities, which were among the main travellers interests from October to March during the Autumn-Winter 2022-2023 season.

  Ivana Kolar, CEO at Julius Rose Consulting and Director of the Tourism 365 Conference, commented, "It is great to have confirmation that the Southeast Mediterranean region and Croatia are moving forward to achieve a more balanced tourism activity throughout the year. This has been the objective of this conference since its inception 7 years ago – bringing together governments and companies to align on vision and strategy".   Carlos Cendra, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Mabrian added, "There are no doubts about the development possibilities of the region and Croatia for the non-summer season. The data shows excellent security perception and a well-balanced tourism offering to generate sustainable activity throughout the year, thereby boosting local economies".

 

• This summer travellers booked hotels at never-before-seen prices. How can travel sellers and B2B distributors respond? What role does tech play?
• Data from travel intelligence provider shows 2023 August prices for hotels were up by 64.03% in North America when compared to 2019.

  Since the pandemic, hotel room rates have been increasing drastically and this summer saw travellers paying prices that well exceeded 2019’s prices or any ever seen before. In fact, based on data from travel intelligence provider Mabrian, in August average hotel prices Vs 2019 were up by 16.75% in Europe, 48.5% in Asia and a massive 64.03% in North America.   Will this trend continue or slowly go away as ‘revenge travel’ fades? At what point do very high prices become counterproductive because guests feel ripped-off and won’t come back? And what role does technology and innovation play in responding to all of these challenges?   We spoke to experts from throughout the travel supply chain to get their take on whether the rates are here to stay, and how the industry should respond.   These higher-than-average hotel room rates will provide opportunities for tech-savvy travel sellers who can use innovative ways to help their travellers find the best deals, says Christian Sabbagh from Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) group Travelsoft – owner of distribution platforms such as Traffics, Orchestra and Travel Compositor: “Travel agencies and third parties can develop new strategies for helping customers find great deals on rooms while still offering competitive pricing options.  Additionally, as customer demand continues to grow suppliers can expand their services with innovative approaches like dynamic pricing models or integrated loyalty programs that reward users who book multiple stays at affiliated properties.”   Hotel revenue management experts BEONx warn that the higher-than-average prices are unlikely to last forever as consumers won’t put up with this even if they have the money.  Chief Marketing & Innovation offices Alex Barros comments that “how much is too much? It’s not really about the absolute price, although clearly all travellers have a budget, but instead more about the perception of value. If someone stayed in your property before for half the price, then this time they’re expecting things to be twice as good and if they’re not you damage your brand. Instead try and think of other ways to get more profit out of each customer than just the room charge. Could you be selling more F&B or providing them with a guided tour of the city? There’s always a way to make each guest more profitable and technology is nearly always part of that process.”   Meanwhile the global travel distribution provider Didatravel says that hotels should focus on differentiation.  Chief Marketing Office Gareth Matthews notes: “Although the demand for travel is high, hotels should focus on offering high quality, unique experiences to justify the higher price tags.  Travellers are paying more – but they are expecting more in return and, if a property does not deliver, they could be more likely to leave bad reviews or simply not return.  People want more for their money and want to see the higher prices reflected in the service they receive.”   As a final thought on the topic, some feel that many consumers still want to save money and are on a budget, so they won’t go away – that’s the sentiment of Digitrips, the owner of multi-product travel platform MisterFly. Managing Director Emilie Dumont warns hotel suppliers and third party distributors that: “Not all travellers can or will pay these higher prices; there is a large group of people that will appreciate discounts, incentives, loyalty schemes and special offers. If we want to avoid low hotel occupancy rates in the long term, the onus is on the travel industry as a whole to help agents and OTAs capitalise on the lowest possible rates for this market. Our newly launched Best Price Tracker, which enables travel sellers to benefit from more favourable rates if the price drops between the time of booking and the travel date, is a step in this direction.”

 

• Mabrian analyzes the evolution of traveller behavior and their motivations for travel since 2019
• ‘Experiential’ definition includes activities such as Wellness, Active & Lifestyle, Nature & Food and Cuisine.

  Mabrian Technologies, the leading company in Travel Intelligence and sentiment analysis, reveals the evolution of travellers’ behaviour and motivations from 2019 until now.   Since 2023 is definitively the back to normal year for tourism globally, Mabrian wanted to check if the travel behavioural changes detected after the pandemic will remain the same, or if actually they will switch back to traditional tourism activities.   To obtain this answer, Mabrian has analysed the spontaneous behaviour and preferences of travellers globally using Social Listening. This methodology is based on Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (Natural Language Processing) techniques to analyse over 400 million tourism related interactions on Social Media during the observed period (first semester of 2019 to first semester of 2023).   The results of this study were presented during the webinar organised by AVIAREPS titled Changing traveller behaviour and trends, where besides from Mabrian’s study, Marriot International and Qatar Tourism presented their insights on this matter.   How tourists travel now   The major conclusion to take from the study is that experiential activities or motivations are taking over from conventional travel motivations. As a definition of ‘experiential’, the activities considered are related to Wellness, Active & Lifestyle, Nature & Food and Cuisine. On the other hand, conventional travel motivations have been defined as Arts and Culture, Sunbathing, Family, Shopping and Nightlife activities.   When dividing these motivations in two different blocks, the data shows how experiential activities has increased by 10 percentual points in the last 4 years ahead of conventional activities. By June 2023 the share of experiential motivations is already almost 50 / 50, which is highly significant, considering that in June 2019 only Arts & Culture and Sunbathing represented 41% of the travel motivations.   GRAPH: EXPERIENTIAL VS CONVENTIONAL   The activities that have picked up the most during these years reaching unprecedented levels of interest are Active & Lifestyle, Nature and Wellness. Regarding the two first ones, the data shows a clear inflection point from 2021, corroborating the effects of the pandemic in this type of motivations to travel. Wellbeing has also seen stable growth since 2019.   GRAPH: Global evolution of Tourist Interests: lines graph   On the other hand, conventional activities that have lost most of their importance are Arts & Culture and Sunbathing, which now represent only 34% of travel motivations, losing 7 percentual points since 2019.   GRAPH: Global evolution of Tourist Interests: bars   Carlos Cendra, Chief Marketing and Communication Officer at Mabrian comments: “the way we travel is constantly switching. From the traditional holidays of sunbathing in coastal destinations and culture and shopping in the cities, to disconnecting and discovering experiences where the connection with the environment and ourselves is key. There’s an obvious impact of the pandemic and the effect of being locked down that made us realise how important it is to enjoy the outdoors and feel well and healthy during our free time which has stuck in travellers’ motivations”.   Mabrian highlights that it is essential for destinations and tourism companies to detect new global trends among travellers in an agile manner, while working to offer a tourism product that is as diversified as possible and in line with new trends. High dependence on specific tourism products causes inefficiencies related to high dependence on certain source markets and high seasonality patterns. These factors are of great importance when it comes to promoting the sustainability of the destination.

 

• Mabrian announces strategic growth plan as part of evolution to become the number one travel intelligence tool globally.
• In addition to the Middle East and North America push the company will also expand further into providing services to hotels, airlines and other private sector businesses.
• Diana Munoz joins Mabrian as a Strategic Advisor to lead the company’s new strategy and contribute to its growth.

  Travel intelligence leader Mabrian is delighted to announce its strategic growth plan as part of its evolution to become the number one travel intelligence tool globally. The company is delighted to unveil its new strategy, which will focus on leveraging its robust platform, forming new partnerships, expanding internationally, and attracting talent.   As part of this strategy Mabrian has appointed Diana Munoz as Strategic Growth Advisor to the Executive Team.  Over a decade as a Senior Vice President in Mastercard, Munoz held various global positions managing strategic partnerships, and fostering growth for over a decade.  Prior to Mastercard, Diana held senior positions in Citi EMEA and Latam and in American Express North America and Latam.   Under Diana’s advice, Mabrian’s new strategy will focus on international expansion. The company is poised for exponential development and growth in new regions such as the United States or the Middle East, despite already operating in 40 countries. This expansion will be achieved through strategic partnerships at a global level and the exploration of new business segments within the private sector. These initiatives aim to support Mabrian's existing global leadership in providing intelligence services to tourist destinations.   For the past eight years, Mabrian has been at the forefront of offering travel data and insights through its artificial intelligence-powered visual dashboard. What sets it apart is its ability to integrate multiple sources of data, enabling it to track the complete traveller's journey, including air travel, hotel stays, destination spending, and social impressions. Mabrian leverages over 20 global data sources to gain a comprehensive understanding of visitor profiles and behaviour, helping destinations optimise their promotional strategies and maximise spending.   With an impressive 85% service renewal rate, Mabrian's development is supported by its high customer loyalty. In addition, the company continuously improves its Artificial Intelligence systems, allowing for the identification and forecasting of tourism trends using Big Data analytics. These ongoing advancements in AI strengthen Mabrian's position as an industry leader.   "Mabrian is delighted to welcome Diana Munoz as a Strategic Advisor to our executive team" stated Santi Camps, Founder & CEO at Mabrian. "Diana's in-depth understanding of the travel industry and her strategic vision will be instrumental in driving our growth and establishing Mabrian as a global leader in travel intelligence. We are confident that her appointment will enable us to seize new opportunities and strengthen our position."   Camps added: "Mabrian’s client base speaks to the strength of our offerings. Now, we are expanding our services to the private sector, exploring new regions, and actively engaging in partnerships with key consulting firms.    This growth trajectory has us incredibly excited and ready to take on new challenges."Diana Munoz, in her new role as a Strategic Advisor, expressed her enthusiasm about joining Mabrian, stating, "After many years of working with Mabrian as a partner, I am delighted to be a part of this new phase in its journey and excited to contribute to its international expansion. Mabrian's advanced technology, combined with its strong client base and exceptional team, positions us for tremendous growth. I look forward to leveraging my expertise and working closely with the team to capitalise on the opportunities ahead and drive success in this new phase."

 

• Average hotel prices for Easter are increasing in all 20 destinations analysed and, in most cases, far above the rate of inflation.
• Only a few exceptions are detected in Naples, Tirana, and Budapest, where 5-star hotel prices have decreased slightly.
• In Barcelona, Brussels, and Rome, hotel prices have increased by an average of 30% to 33%, whereas Zagreb, Warsaw, and Tirana have the lowest prices for all three hotel categories during Easter.

  Mabrian, a leading travel intelligence provider, has conducted a hotel price analysis of 20 destinations in Europe for this Easter holiday. Prices for Easter are on the rise across all categories and destinations analysed, except for Naples, Tirana, and Budapest – wherethe prices of five-star hotels have experienced a slight decline of 1%, 3%, and 5%, respectively.   The average price increase across all categories is significantly greater than the annual inflation rate – based on February 2023 published prices for a stay between the 10th and the 17th of April  –  for all destinations except Budapest and Tirana, where the annual inflation rate is higher than the average price increase for this period.   In general terms, Barcelona, Brussels, and Rome are the destinations with the highest increase in hotel prices, ranging from 30% to 33% on average. Meanwhile, Ljubljana, Madrid, and Tirana are destinations where the price increase is lower.   Mabrian also notes that Barcelona is the city where prices have increased the most compared to Easter 2022, with a 43% increase in three-star hotels.   In 4-star hotels, the highest growth is in Brussels, with a 34% increase. And in the most luxurious category of 5-star hotels, Paris stands out, where the average price be 30% higher than last year.   The company also notes that for the Easter holidays, Zagreb, Warsaw, and Tirana are the destinations that offer the most competitive prices for all three categories of hotels.   Carlos Cendra, Director of Marketing & Sales at Mabrian, comments: "While it is clear that hotel prices are rising sharply, we must look at this rise in the context of inflation and rising supply costs across the board. In addition, we have to take into account the increase in staff operating costs, due to the lack of manpower and the necessary improvement in conditions. All this is combined with a strong demand for travel during this period, which pushes prices up."   To access the full report, including the prices breakdown by destinations and hotel categories, please visit the following link: https://mabrian.com/blog/hotel-price-rises-easter-inflation/

 

• Mexico and Colombia lead the destinations with the highest growth in air capacity to travel to the Spanish capital in 2023

  Mabrian, a leading tourist intelligence company, has analyzed for the FITUR travel trade fair – which is being held this week in Madrid – the growth of the main source markets that will travel the most to Madrid this 2023.   The study, carried out using real-time data on air capacity, shows how Latin America has enormous growth in demand this year to visit Spain’s capital. In fact, Mexico and Colombia top the list of international destinations that have increased their air capacity to travel to Madrid. In the case of Mexico, the growth  of air capacity to Madrid is 32.72% higher when compared to 2019 and 42.05% highger compared to last. For its part, Colombia has increased air capacity by 23.35% compared to 2019 and 34.96% when compared to 2022.   The other countries that have increased their air capacity to Madrid are, in descending order: Portugal, the United States, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Switzerland. In the case of the United States, interest grew by 33.84% compared to last year (you can read more about the profile of Americans traveling to Spain here in this recent Mabrian analysis), but decreased when compared to 2019. In the case of Switzerland, interest decreased compared to 2019 and is recovering compared to last year.   Countries that will visit Madrid the most in 2023 by ranking     In addition to the data on growth in air capacity, the origin destinations that will visit Madrid the most, in order, will be: the Spainish domestic market to Madrid, followed by Italy, France, Portugal, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Mexico, Colombia and Swizterland.   In this ranking there are changes compared to 2019, when the United Kingdom was in fourth place followed by Germany, and Mexico was in last place. Thus, in 2019, the destinations that visited Madrid the most were: Spain, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, Portugal, Switzerland, Colombia and Mexico.

 

• Half of the Americans who visited Spain in summer 2022 came mainly from 10 cities – and within these cities, the demand was concentrated in only three or four specific neighborhoods
• New study from  leading tourism intelligence company Mabrian analyzes  the footprint oftourists from the United States visiting Spain during 2022
• Approximately 50% of US visitors were over the age of 35, had a median salary of over $75,000, and were university educated.

  Mabrian, a leading tourism intelligence company, today publishes and presents its new study called ‘The impact of American tourists in Spain’, which collects and analyses data relating to the stays of  United States visitors during summer 2022 to Spain – including data such as the types of tourists, the profile (age, economic level, level of studies), the average stay, the interests and the visits and activities that have aroused their interest during their visit to Spanish destinations.   In total, data from 38,933 tourists from the United States who visited Spain from June to August 2022 have been studied and analyzed by Mabrian. Specifically, the study looked at those who visited the destinations of Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Seville, Menorca and Tenerife.   Regarding the origin and profile of the Americans who have visited Spain this summer, Mabrian has concluded that half of tthose came mainly from 10 cities, including New York (14%), Miami (9%) and Los Angeles (6%), followed by San Francisco, Washington, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Orlando and Dallas. In these cities, demand was concentrated in three or four specific neighborhoods. Regarding their profile, half of these visitors were over 35 years old, had an average salary of more than 75,000 dollars and had completed university studies.   As for the length of their trip, most Americans who visited urban destinations stayed between two and three days, but whilst visting Spanishislands such as Menorca or Tenerife they stayed between 4 and 7 days. In general, American tourists have been visiting this summer  15 of Spain’s 50 different provinces.   When asked if they stayed in the destination they are traveling to or moved within the territory, approximately 30% of Americans moved to more than one destination whilst in Spain. Even so, Barcelona was the destination that kept  American tourists most captive, while Sevillefor example was a destination that was done most in combination with others.   The tourist experiences that most interested Americans were those that have to do with gastronomy, shopping and active luxury, such as outdoor activities and physical exercise. Likewise, culture and green spaces were also part of the greatest interests of Americans when they visited Spain. The Americans analyzed stayed mostly in establishments and hotels of 4 and 5 stars.   Lastly, looking at data based on comments and positive /negative mentions on social media, the aspects that most add value to Americans in Spain are the perception of security and the climate, as well as their satisfaction with hotel properties, that highlight location and their cleanliness. While those that detract from their experience, and that have room for improvement , were services related to tourism product satisfaction, such as art and culture, nature, family activities, shopping and well-being, mainly.   Carlos Cendra, Director of Marketing and Sales at Mabrian comments, “The US market is one of the most interesting for European destinations, since it is clearly recovering supported by the beneficial euro-dollar exchange rate and the increase in air connectivity. It is very interesting to analyze the impact that the new air routes with destinations such as Mallorca, Tenerife and the recently announced Malaga route are generating, not only with these destinations, but also with the rest of the destinations in these regions. In this instance, for example, knowing that half of US visitors come from just 10 states and that their socioeconomic profile is high makes marketing campaigns for a Spanish destination much easier.   “As always, knowing what experience visitors really have is vital to growing and improving the service offered by the destination. This information helps us understand how our destination is positioned, how it is perceived from the outside and how tourists value aspects such as safety, climate, hotel supply and tourist services. In short, what they think and how satisfied they are with a destination”.

  When it comes to climate change the travel industry needs to change its approach to ‘summer holidays’ if it doesn’t want to get caught out in the cold   ‘Winter is coming’ is the Stark family’s moto in Game of Thrones and in the travel industry this might be the case when it comes to ‘summer holidays’ due to climate change.   This year saw heat records broken in most of the main European summer tourism destinations, in some cases by quite significant margins, and climate experts are predicting that many places popular with tourists soon will be scorching hot every summer.   What does this mean for a tourism industry largely based around summer peak season visitors? Could winter become the new summer or will tourists start visiting new destinations where the climate is more bearable? We spoke with six experts to find out more.   Carlos Cendra, Sales and Marketing Director at travel intelligence provider Mabrian says: “If anyone thinks that hotter weather is good news for beach traditional beach destinations then they should think again. During this summer’s heat wave in Europe we saw a clear drop in visitor satisfaction levels during the hottest weeks. The weather is one of the most important contextual factors for the tourism industry. Hundreds of vacational destinations in the Mediterranean and North Africa have traditionally based their tourism development on  favorable weather conditions. Now this is changing, and faster than we thought. This is probably going to change global travel trends within the next years, so we’d better analyze the effects of this on the expectations and preferences of travellers.”   Matthew Chapman, CTO of travel booking technology provider Vibe comments: “Online travel agents and other digital points of sale for travel should consider adding a filter that lets people search by average temperatures for the dates they are looking. Likewise hotels, experiences providers, perhaps even airlines and airports should all start considering populating their content with information about air conditioning, shaded areas, and so on – and make that content searchable and filterable in the booking process. More and more people will be concerned by such details at the search and booking stage.”   Alex Barros,  Chief Marketing and Innovation Officer from Beonprice, the revenue management & total profitabilty platform  for  for the hospitality sector, adds: “From a revenue management perspective for hoteliers this is a potentially enormous change as pricing for leisure travel has all been defined by the same summer peak season approach since the beginning of mass tourism in the 1960s. More research will be needed around how temperatures impact consumer demand. What is the ideal temperature for maximum pricing? Is it impacted by temporary volatility in temperatures, or just long-term averages? All of this will of course impact how hoteliers approach building and opening new properties too, not just location but temperature-controlled buildings and communal areas.”   Fabián Gonzalez, Co-Founder of Forward_MAD, a luxury tourism event taking place in Madrid from 5^th to 7^th October, says: “Luxury hotels and resorts, and luxury experiences generally, are better positioned to adapt to the challenges of climate change as they have the  resources to invest in what is needed – better climate controlled buildings, air conditioned transfers, and so on – and have more demanding clients in terms of sustainability expectations, who are prepared to pay for this. Contrast that with mass-market tourism providers with low-margins where such costs would be the difference between profit and loss. Additionally a shift towards tourists spreading their holidays out throughout the whole year, adapting to ‘wintering’ rather than ‘summering’, could suit many boutique and smaller luxury hotels with only a limited number of rooms – allowing them to fill them up in the normally quieter months. Not least as high spending travellers normally are more flexible in terms of vacation dates anyway.”    Bruno Martins, Senior Product Manager from the global hospitality technology provider Shiji Group comments: “Hotels and resorts in hotter locations will have to re-think their outdoor relaxation areas, perhaps putting an end to ‘outside’ pools or at the very least placing some kind of cover over the top – and making them more nighttime friendly too, including lifeguard services, or perhaps even charging for peak hours. Equally the spa centres should be rethought, positioning them more as a place to go and cool down – with less saunas and more ice baths. Golf courses are a popular draw for hot locations and they too will be impacted, quite heavily in fact as you can’t cover a whole golf course with screens and more watering will be required at a time when water becomes more scarce. Again nighttime, or at least early morning, tee-offs will be in greater demand. Technology is going to be the golden-thread throughout all of these changes, whether that be via apps that allow guests to schedule better those precious cool moments, pricing software that maximizes revenues based on temperature, or electronic wrist bands that allow guests access (or not!) to certain locations at certain times based on demand. Basically hotels can already start optimizing revenue for the activities based on time of day, where demand will increase and improve revenue management of rates.”   Janis Dzenis, Director of PR for the recently launched flight price comparison website WayAway also says: “For many US travellers going to Europe, summer is still all about the Mediterranean region and that might take a long while to change no matter how hot it becomes. Especially keeping in mind that for many US visitors to Europe this is a one-off, special trip – they aren’t basing their choice on previous experiences, but on what they saw in a movie or a friend told them. Any reality will take time to filter through. However in the short term all this recent hot weather around the world is driving eco-consciousness amongst travellers. So they´ll want to know what destinations and hotels are doing to fight this and those that don’t have a convincing answer will gradually lose out. This will also drive more demand for travellers to offset their carbon footprint too and this is a service we offer to our WayAway Plus subscribers, one that is proving very popular.”

 

• Data from travel intelligence provider Mabrian shows correlation between exchange rate and search demand from US source market
• Mastercard confirms that American travellers in Spain spend twice the amount other European travellers do
• Luxury tourism event Forward_MAD calls this a ‘gift not to be missed’ for hoteliers concerned about the post-September outlook
• Polling from US metasearch company WayAway shows that almost half of Americans now more keener to travel to Europe as a result of parity
• Revenue management experts Beonprice provides hoteliers with tips on how to market themselves

  Carlos Cendra Cruz, Sales & Marketing Director of travel intelligence provider Mabrian comments:   “We have had a close look at the relationship between the Euro/Dollar exchange rate and the level of search demand for flights from the US to Europe over the course of this year.   “Whilst you might expect to see greater demand for Europe as the summer months approach, we can nonetheless see a very clear correlation between the value of the Euro and demand for travel – with clear periods where an increase in the cost of acquiring a Euro results in a fall in demand for flights to Europe, and vice versa.   “Aside from telling us that right now European hotels should be marketing themselves hard to US travellers, very clearly this shows us that hotels and tourism boards around the world should factor in – amongst other important elements too – exchange rates when considering where to focus their marketing funds.   “But we shouldn’t forget though that this cuts both ways and no one should become over reliant on any one market where a sudden shift in exchange rates – or as this research shows even a relatively small shift – can result in massive decreases in demand.”   Paloma Real, general manager of Mastercard Spain comments:   "Before the pandemic, the United States was one of the most important source markets for the Spanish tourism sector in terms of both the number of visitors (3.2 million in 2019) and spending (€6,774 million). Tourists from North America have an average expenditure twice as high as that of European tourists (2,087 euros on average vs. 1,175 euros for German tourists, 1,115 euros for UK tourists or 763 euros for French tourists). This is mainly due to the fact that, when travelling by long-haul, tourists from North America usually spend more days in the destination and travel on a larger budget than Europeans entering our country by road and/or shorter-haul flights.   "Due to the pandemic, the US-Spain corridor has been one of the destinations most affected by the restrictions, and the number of visitors has dropped significantly (1 million visitors in 2021). With the end of the restrictions and the fall of the euro against the dollar, it is expected that in 2022 the number of visitors and spending will be close to those of 2019. The euro-dollar peg is expected to be a lever to accelerate the recovery of visitors to the country and average visitor spending.   "Our latest travel trends study published in June "Travel 2022: Trends & Transitions" anticipates a global shift in travel and consumption habits. Spending on experiences (activities, restaurants, bars and leisure) has already recovered to 2019 levels and, for the first time in history, has surpassed spending on shopping. Tourists are increasingly looking for unique and, if possible, personalised experiences that allow them to enjoy the trip rather than buying souvenirs and products that they can easily purchase from home.   "On the other hand, we see this trend confirmed by the fact that more and more tourist destinations are relying on Mastercard to develop special experiences and promote them to source markets through our priceless.com platform. As a result, they are accelerating the recovery of the tourism sector in their destinations.”   Fabián Gonzalez, Founder of Forward_MAD, a luxury tourism conference taking place from October 5^th to 7^th in Madrid comments:   “Whilst occupation rates are high right now many hoteliers are already asking what will happen in September. After all they have two years of COVID debt behind them to make up for along with staff shortages, rising interest rates and inflationary worries too.   “For the luxury segment in particular the potential increase in demand from one of the biggest outbound source markets in the world really is a gift not to be missed. Not least as US travellers are dream guests: they spend more, stay longer, book further in advance, enjoy the room service – and at the end they tip properly.   “But how do you capture such travellers? They have their own travel agencies and preferences that not all European hoteliers can easily tap into. Both Mabrian and Mastercard – who have some very valuable insights on this particular trend – will be on stage at Forward_MAD from October 5^th to 7^th to discuss this and more.”   Polling of a statistically relevant sample of 250 American citizens late last week from WayAway, the United States price comparison website for cheap flights, showed that:  

• Almost half (49%) are now keener to travel to Europe than before as a result of the dollar to euro parity.
• The area where they felt they are most likely to benefit from this change is in shopping (63%) closely followed by dinning out (60%).

  Neville Isaac, Chief Customer Officer of hotel revenue management tool provider Beonprice comments:   “Post Covid we have seen a significant resurgence of visitors from the USA and now the parity between the dollar and the euro is the perfect moment to optimize the segment.   “Traditionally in Europe, the US visitor has the highest overall spend, a longer booking window, and length of stay than almost any other feeder market. Typically also, the data shows us that they book superior room types, so the overall contribution to profits from this segment is extremely high.    “Although we are seeing extremely high ADRs (average daily rates) this year across Europe (around 30% above 2019 levels), now with the euro/dollar parity hotels –  especially those cities with an international airport –  have a great opportunity to increase volume from the high value US market, where the exchange rates make these destinations attractive.   “In order to take advantage of this opportunity, we recommend that hotels study the data and consider:  

• From which US cities are they getting demand?
• How far in advance do their US customers typically book?
• Which channels are they using to buy?
• And finally which products (room types, rate types etc,) are the most popular?

  “With this information Revenue Managers can sit down with marketing and design campaigns to reach these markets.”

 

• Incorporation of four people to enhance the company’s presence in different regions to offer solutions based on tourism intelligence.
• The team has grown by 20% since 2021, now forming a total of 27 people.
• Mabrian now has a multicultural team with 11 nationalities speaking 10 languages.

  Mabrian, the leading company in big data and tourism intelligence, has reinforced its business development team in recent months to accelerate its expansion in priority areas for the company such as Italy, France, Portugal, Greece, the Balkans, the Middle East and Latin America.   Mary Menchón, Chris Ramaciotti, Parisa Bakhtiari and Catalina Taltavull have joined the commercial team to bring tourism intelligence closer to the many different destinations and markets that want to promote better decision-making based on data and real-time information on trends, tourist satisfaction rates and other relevant indicators for them.   All of them have an international profile with experience in the tourism sector both in the field of tourism bodies and the hotel sector. The new joiners will be responsible for specific regions with a focus on interacting directly with the sector in each of their respective countries or regions to offer solutions based on tourism intelligence.   Mabrian’s current workforce has grown 20% in the last year and is more multicultural than ever. In total, it now has 27 people of 11 different nationalities, speaking 10 languages, distributed in 6 departments. The team is located between the offices in Menorca and Barcelona along with a current growing commitment to a hybrid work model, where face-to-face work coexists with remote work.   Santi Camps, Founder and CEO of Mabrian, celebrating that the team continues to grow to help Mabrian expand to more regions, reaching a total of 16 countries where the company currently has a presence, comments: “We want to officially welcome our new colleagues, who are now already part of the Mabrian family. The objective for all of us is clear: turn data and information into answers for our partners, enabling smarter decisions, whilst increasing the efficiency and sustainability of the sector”.  

• Chris Ramaciotti is the new Business Development Manager for Northern Europe. He has an international MBA and extensive experience in the luxury hotel sector. For Chris, “the technology developed by Mabrian is a central element when it comes to meeting the needs of a traveler since we accompany destinations and companies so that they can better understand their behavior and adapt their strategies”.
• While Parisa Bakhtiari is the new Business Development Manager for the Asia, the Middle East and Africa areas. A telecommunications engineer with a background in tourism, she has spent many years of her career focused on the travel industry. “I am passionate about exploring data in tourism, and with this passion I am dedicated to facilitating the incorporation of tourism intelligence in tourism policies and strategies, whilst helping the sector to take advantage of the opportunities of big data.”
• Mary Menchón is Mabrian’s Business Development Manager for Spain, Portugal and LATAM. Trained in tourism andcommunication, her work experience has focused on the tourism sector from different perspectives. “At Mabrian, a company that I have known since 2018, I know how to provide the vision of working and implementing the use of big data for DMO’s from scratch, since I myself experienced that process. For me, being able to help tourist destinations implement this tool and being able to continue contributing my part for the recovery of tourism is my greatest motivation”.
• And Catalina Taltavull is Mabrian’s new global public procurement coordinator. She has a mixed profile between aeronautical engineering, business development and extensive experience in the tourism and accommodation sector. Her functions at Mabrian are summed up in her own words: “We are facing the birth of a new service sector for tourism managers: Tourism Intelligence. The highly unstable context that the sector is facing makes administrations increasingly see the need to professionalize and have information to make better decisions. At Mabrian what we have is a solution developed and approved with more than five years of experience in the market, ready to provide an agile solution to the sector.”

  Countries ranked according to US demand for international travel during the 4th July long weekend   This coming Monday 4th of July is Independence Day in the United States and many Americans, taking advantage of the fact that the holiday falls on a Monday, will celebrate it by traveling to international destinations.   Mabrian, the leading tourism intelligence company, has analyzed the outlook for trips from the United States to the main international destinations using their own Mabrian indicator that measures the strength of market demand for a destination based on searches.   The conclusions that have been drawn are the following:  

1. Mexico is the destination that arouses most interest from Americans to travel to during these dates, with a score of 36.0 per million searches.
2. Spain is the next country in terms of demand, among the countries analyzed, and the first among the European destinations analyzed for this study, with a score of 20.5.
3. Portugal (13.1) exceeds Greece (11.7) in terms of demand, with Italy at (10.3) and France (9.6). Whilst at the bottom of the list is the Dominican Republic (9.5).

  Mabrian detected that the increase in demand begins on the weekend before July 4. This may indicate that Americans are planning to extend their vacations by taking advantage of the long weekend.   The analysis also reveals that Greece and Italy are the destinations that are growing the most in terms of the interest of Americans for this period. This 2022, Greece has improved its connectivity with the United States, both through an increase in air seat capacity (+44% 2022 vs. 2019) on the routes that already existed before the pandemic, and the opening of three new routes that connect the destination with Boston, Washington and Atlanta.   To reach all these destinations, the most competitive prices for direct flights (one way) from the US are to Mexico and the Dominican Republic, which do not exceed €350 on average. The highest price of direct flights from the United States is to Greece, reaching, on average at €1,000, whilst the cheapest average price is for flights to Portugal. The rest of the prices for European destinations start at €855 on average.