WeTravel has launched its inaugural annual travel trends report using data from thousands of tour operators and group travel businesses.
The report is titled Purchasing Habits: The Future of Travel Bookings and Payments, and compares how consumers are booking and paying for travel this year to pre-pandemic booking data (2019).
The report found a drastic shift in travellers’ expectancy of personalisation, customisation, and automation pre- and post-trip, with control on where, when and how they book and pay for personalised travel experiences.
key data findings within the report include:
- Women are dominating travel purchasing and the average age of purchasers is maturing.
- Tour and multi-day package pricing is increasing to recover lost costs, while reflecting global inflation.
- Travellers are seeking custom packages and tours over all-inclusive vacations.
- Travellers are booking closer to departure in fear of cancellations, but this is reducing refund processing for travel businesses.
- Travellers are paying for tours and packages with more instalments, more traveller focus on reducing high up-front cost
Ted Clements, WeTravel’s CEO, said: “After a two-year industry standstill, commonplace travel purchasing has been disrupted: Now the data finds expectation of personalisation, customisation, and automation—which is well expected from consumer purchasing in differing industries—dominating this year’s purchasing decisions.”
