Providing clients with value for money and opportunities to save will serve travel agents well for 2014, according to the 2013 Portrait of American Travelers released by?MMGY Global/Harrison Group.
Though American travelers are just as determined to travel this year as last, the trauma of the recession is still conditioning their choices, according to the report, which found that despite their concerns about the economy, Americans expect to spend slightly more on travel/vacations in 2013 than they did in 2012.
?Technological advances and additional sources of information are also factoring heavily into the decision-making process, as travelers are attempting to make smarter choices, seeking better value and good deals,? said Steve Cohen, vice president of Insights at MMGY Global, an integrated marketing firm that specializes in the travel industry. ?But we are encouraged to see that travelers are planning to spend more on travel and vacations, and that 82 percent are planning to take as many or more trips in the coming year as they did in the previous year.?
MMGY surveyed 2,511 active leisure travelers in households with an annual income of $50,000 or more and who took at least one leisure trip of 75 miles or more from home during the previous 12 months on which they used overnight accommodations.
The survey found a 3 percent increase in active travelers who plan to ?take more trips in the year ahead? (now 18 percent of all travelers), while two-thirds (64 percent) plan to take the same number of trips this year as they did last year. Fifteen percent are planning to ?take fewer trips.?
Six in 10 travelers examine every spending category, including travel services, to find opportunities to save, according to the survey.
Comparison travel shopping sites such as Kayak and Dealbase are now used to make travel reservations by 28 percent of travelers, up from 15 percent in 2010. Meanwhile, 58 percent of leisure travelers typically use an online travel agency (OTA) such as Expedia, Travelocity or Orbitz to research travel, yet the use of OTAs to make travel reservations is down from 66 percent in 2010 to 58 percent in 2013.
Cautious spending has put automobile travel on the rise as travel by personal automobile increased from 65 percent in 2010 to 69 percent in 2013.
Smartphone usage among travelers has increased since 2010, with 36 percent downloading travel-related apps compared to 19 percent in 2010. Among travelers who have downloaded travel-related apps, 54 percent have airline-branded apps, followed by hotel-branded apps (38 percent) and destination guides (27 percent).